


Altea City Chronicles

by LeoLiddy, NightWings



Series: Brothers Together, KIDs Forever [4]
Category: Magic Kaito, Voltron: Legendary Defender, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Alternate Universe - After College/University, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Dating, Family Issues, Gen, M/M, Misunderstandings, Relationship(s), Smut in the last chapter, Sometimes they just need to talk, Thief! Keith, klance, slight split personality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-06
Updated: 2017-02-18
Packaged: 2018-09-22 12:01:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 36,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9606740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeoLiddy/pseuds/LeoLiddy, https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightWings/pseuds/NightWings
Summary: Three Epilogues to finish off the series, basically some mini stories that finish up some open ended things that happened in the main two stories and somethings that were to eventually happen.First Chapter:ShinichixKaitoSecond Chapter:Pidge/KatieThird Chapter:Lance and Keith





	1. Brother Trouble

**Author's Note:**

> Night: Hi guys soooo as sad as me and Liddy are here is the final part to our series! Its been a really fun run but we hope you enjoyed reading this series as much as we loved writing them! Thank you for taking time and enjoying the stories we've met some really awesome people through the comments and hope you'll stick with us when we put up more works. So sit back and enjoy!

Shinichi raised an eyebrow as he walked into the cafe that Ran had demanded he meet up with her and Sonoko after classes. He was about to refuse saying that he had some cases that Megure wanted him to look at but the tone his best friend spoke to him after that had him quickly agreeing.

 _::_ **_Shinichi...you will come meet us at Peridot Cafe after class, you need a break you workaholic!::_ **

_“A-alright alright! I’ll be there as soon as I finish classes promise!” Shinichi quickly agreed not wanting to be on Ran’s bad side._

_::Good! I’ll see you then Shinichi!::_

He easily spotted Ran and Sonoko only they were hovering over Sonoko’s phone apparently watching something. Seeing that they were busy he decided to grab some coffee before enduring whatever reason Ran had insisted he come here.

Once he had his drink in hand he sat across the two girls who were looking star-struck as they seemed really invested in what they were watching. Ran looked up and looked surprised to see Shinichi there as she paused the video much to Sonoko’s protest.

“Shinichi you came!” Ran said excitedly.

“Finally decided to show up huh detective geek?”Sonoko sniffed.

 _‘You’d show up too if your best friend left an open ended threat when she can punch through concrete,’_ Shinichi thought to himself, “I told you I’d be here. What were you two watching anyway?”

He literally got the phone shoved into his face for his question.

“How have you not **_seen_ ** it yet!? It’s only one of the most romantic proposals I’ve ever watched that's gone viral on youtube!?” Sonoko screeched as Shinichi took the phone so he could actually see what was going on. He started the video at the beginning and couldn’t help but look surprised when he recognized a lot of the people that were in the video. Especially the one that’s the center of attention.

“Huh, it’s Lance proposing to Keith, Kaito said he was planning something with the others before he came back.” Shinichi said watching the screen as the video continued to play as he didn’t see Sonoko and Ran’s mouth drop when he said he recognized the two in the video. Well, Ran and Sonoko remembered Keith especially after Ran nearly thought he was Shinichi that one time but they had no idea Shinichi would know Lance...and who was Kaito?

“Shinichi, how do you know Lance?” Ran asked curiously.

“He’s an in-training officer under Chief Shirogane in Altea. Remember when I got called over for that KID heist there? I met him over there,” Shinichi explained not taking his eyes off the screen, especially when he saw Kaito grin and step up creating the butterflies with his dad on the video. He couldn’t help but smile when he saw how happy the magician was for his twin brother, he remembered Kaito calling him and excitedly telling him what his brother’s boyfriend was planning to do at the airport. Even if it was 2am in Beika and he was exhausted from another homicide he couldn’t help but enjoy listening to Kaito talk.

He met the young magician at a Holmes convention he went to, unfortunately the convention was for the Tv drama and not the book like he hoped for.

Kaito was there explaining to some fans at a mystery solving booth about how misdirection was the key to a perfect crime to which Shinichi couldn't help but chime in and argue about that theory.

There was some heated banter between the two  regarding tricks and comparing the portrayal of Holmes in the drama series to the original literature before ending up exchanging numbers and email addresses with a mutual respect for each other.

Shinichi has even consulted Kaito’s help on confirming how to pull off certain tricks to solve even the more complicated murders.

The young detective had to admit, Kaito Kuroba was pretty brilliant.

Sonoko sighed enviously as she played the video again.

“That is so not fair… why can't I find a guy who would look at me like that….” she whined making Ran pat her friend comfortingly.

“There there Sonoko I’m sure there’ll be someone around,” Ran said rubbing her friend’s back comfortingly. The blonde heiress sniffed and replayed the video again giving an envious whine at the two on the video.

“How long has that video been online?” Shinichi asked while Ran glanced down at the video upload date.

“A few hours ago I think? I can’t really calculate it with timezones but there was a dozen videos of it but we had to go through a few of them to find the best one to see everything,” Ran replied making Shinichi cough a bit into his coffee.

“The power of the internet…” he commented dryly shaking his head as he sipped his drink, “did you guys want to do anything today?”

“We just wanted to catch up, I mean with this being our last year and all,” Ran shrugged, “we figured we stop here first to get something to drink and snack before walking around.”

“That’s true, you still planning on following your mom and get into Law school?” Shinichi asked as Ran nodded eagerly. Her dad had been upset that she hadn’t wanted to follow being a detective but her mom was more than happy to lend her some extra studying material and recommendations to get her a head start.

“And you’re still planning on being a detective for the Beika police force?” Ran said smiling.

“Megure already has me as a consultant so once I graduate I’ll be officially part of the force more or less.” Shinichi replied, it was something he was eager to start even if his curse of running into dead bodies didn’t seem to be stopping in the slightest. He felt his phone go off and picked it up and smiled when he saw it was Kaito easily pressing the accept button, well he was going to until Sonoko gave out a high pitched whine surprising him making his finger slip and hit the speaker button.

“Crap…” Shinichi cursed as Kaito’s voice was heard on the other end.

:: _Shin-Shin! I just landed back in Ekoda!::_ Kaito’s voice exclaimed loudly making whoever was next to him groan.

_::Kai why must you be so cheerful? It was a long ass flight.::_

_::Oh hush baby bro you’re just sour because you wouldn’t stop staring at the ring before finally knocking out.::_

_::That and Kaito is excited to see his new ‘friend’::_ a female voice teased making the magician sputter and the other male laugh.

“I take the plan worked? The video is already all over the internet.” Shinichi said casually.

 _:: Really!? How many hits!?::_ The magician asked excitedly as it sounded he was bouncing eagerly on the other side.

Shinichi looked at the video that was on top of the table. “Close to 800k hits and still growing I think.”

_::Sweet! And that’s only after we left and Matt posted it!::_

_::...Kai...Aoko..._ **_what_ ** _video are you talking about?::_

There was a short silence before Aoko could be heard whistling in the background.

_::So Shin-shin~! When can we meet up?! I got plenty of souvenirs from Altea City~!!!::_

_::_ **_What video you guys?!!!::_ **

Shinichi chuckled weakly. “I’ll check my schedule, email you in a bit Kaito, Laters.”

_::Bye-bees~!::_

**_::Seriously what vid-!::_ ** ***Click!***

Shinichi raised his eyebrows and closed his phone. He turned to see Ran and Sonoko giving him teasing smiles.

“What?” he asked in a deadpanned voice.

“Soooo…..Shin-Shin, huh?” grinned Ran resting her head in hands while Sonoko waggled her eyebrows making Shinichi’s eye twitch.

“I’m not gonna start,” said Shinichi getting up and walking away.

“What! Geek-BOY!!!!” “Shinichiiii!!!” whined the girls about to get up and go after him but were blocked by a waiter who scowled disapprovingly and held their bill to their face, wagging a finger allowing the young sleuth to make his escape.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aoko and Kaito looked at each other while Keith was refusing to lift his head from his pillow you could literally see the steam rising from the young man’s head. After Kaito had hung up on Shinichi Keith had demanded to know what video they were talking about, he got his answer when Katie had sent him a link that he watched as soon as he got home.

“I can’t believe the lot of you videotaped it and put it on **youtube**.”

“I can, you really didn’t think Katie or Kaito wouldn’t?” Aoko grinned as Keith groaned into his pillow again making Kaito laugh.

“Look at the bright side! It’s one of the most popular videos currently on youtube!” Kaito grinned before he ducked as Keith flung his pillow at his head.“Hey be nice!”

“I refuse! Gah! Of all the things you do…” Keith scowled looking at his brother before he fell back onto the bed. Though he caught a glimpse of the ring on his finger and couldn’t help but smile at it, when he heard Aoko and Kaito snickering and cooing at him he sat up and glowered at them his whole entire being still burning red. Giving his brother a dark look he huffed.

”So from the phone conversation I take it you and Shinichi are friends now?”

Kaito coughed. “Yeah! Shin-Shin and I met at a Holmes’s convention for the show a while back and we talked a bit before we exchanged numbers.”

“You mean you two argued and had a passionate discussion about whether sleight of hand could get away with murder,” Aoko retorted amused but sighed.“But that’s all they are, **_FRIENDS._ ** ”

Keith looked at Kaito who quickly averted his glance as Keith’s eyes narrowed.

“Kai...have you and Kudo done anything besides hanging out?” Keith asked.

“Uh...I’ve taken him to one of dad’s shows and one of my performances and we talk sometimes when he consults me for some case he’s working on?” Kaito replied trying to sound confident and failing.

“Translation, no he hasn’t done anything regarding his feelings towards Kudo.” Aoko deadpanned before getting hit by a flying pillow. “Hey! Rude!”

“Shut it Ahoko!” hissed Kaito ducking a throw from Aoko.

“Hey don’t get snippy with me, it’s a fact!”

Keith raised an eyebrow and folded his arms. “Ooooh, I get it now, so it’s alright if you poke into my love life, but God forbid I return the favor…”

Kaito pouted and folded his arms. “Come on, don't be like that bro….”

“Don't _‘Don't-be-like-that bro’_ Me! You teased me enough about Lance and me,” retorted Keith poking his brother in the forehead a few times before smirking. “Well guess what **_big bro_ ** , it's payback time~!”

Kaito let out a gasp of horror. “Nuuuuu! What has that school done to my baby brother!!!!!” he wailed in despair as Aoko and Keith rolled their eyes at each other.

“Okay so first things first, how did you convince Kaito to go to a Holmes convention of all things?” Keith asked ignoring his brother’s dramatics as Aoko looked thoughtful.

“It was Hakuba I think, he bet that since Kaito being who he was couldn't stand being at the convention for more than three hours, he lasted the whole day **_only_ ** because of a certain detective and him talked,” Aoko replied.” I went with him as proof that he stayed there for the entire time.

“Course Hakuba would make a comment like that what'd he lose?” Keith couldn't help but ask.

“He has to buy Kaito a ticket to the food festival in a few days that's specializing in desserts and other foods from around the world,” Aoko grinned as Keith got a similar look.

“You thinking what I'm thinking?” Keith asked smirking.

“That we should pay for another ticket so that Kaito has two so he can take along a certain detective?” Aoko replied as the girl looked positively gleeful. “I like the way you think!”

“ I don't! Come on you guys!” Kaito whined but was thoroughly ignored by his brother and childhood best friend.

“Okay so when Kudo calls letting him know when he's available Kaito can invite him to the festival and they can have their date there!”Aoko giggled.

“Guuyysss! I don't even Know if Shin-Shin would want to go!? He's usually busy with school and cases and then there's that whole rumor of him running into bodies!” Kaito tried arguing.

“Are you really going to let some weird curse stop you from pursuing Kudo? Really Kai?” Keith asked while his brother groaned,” don't tell me you like him only because he's a pretty face. ”

“Of course not!” Kaito nearly shouted scandalized.” I like him because he's funny to talk to, he's really smart even if he has a bit of dry and sarcastic humor, he makes this adorable pout when I show him a new magic trick and he can't figure it out and bugs me to explain it to him which I never do. He’s usually sleep deprived because of cases so I worry about him just having coffee running through him when we hang out,He's hard to surprise but when he does his eyes just get wide with complete awe and the look he has is just amazing.”

Aoko let out a whistle at that lengthy defense. “Boy you are whipped.”

“Shut up.”

“Ok it's settled then! Aoko!” called Keith as Aoko popped up next to him and saluted.

“Aye sir!”

Kaito pouted at the two as he stood and grabbed the blanket. “You can try, but you’ll never catch me!” declared Kaito disappearing under blanket.

“Oh come on!” exclaimed Keith throwing the blanket off, only to find a pillow in place of his brother.

Just then Aoko’s phone began to ring as the girl answered it.

 _::You'll never take me alive suckas!!!::_ cackled Kaito loudly over the phone making Keith and Aoko exchange looks and sigh irritably.

Not wanting to go through the trouble of chasing his idiot brother, Keith decided to turn to a secret weapon as he took a deep breath.

 **“** **_OKAAAA-SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANN!!!!!!!!!!!!!”_ **

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Traitor…” Grumbled Kaito pouting on the couch which Chikage behind him and Toichi snickering in his chair.“Dad, not helping!!!”

“Suck it up Kai you’re going to this because one, you owe it to me for interfering with my love life and two, because at least I was giving Lance a chance with me figuring out my own feelings for him while you two are still literally in the friendzone,” Keith huffed folding his arms.

“Exactly! Okay so let’s go over the plan again,” Aoko said while Kaito sunk further into his seat pulling the cushion over his face.

“I can’t believe all of you are plotting this, don’t I get a say in this!?” Kaito whined.

“You would’ve if you’ve done anything remotely romantic with Kudo,” Aoko commented.“At least Keith’s gone on dates and they’ve **_kissed_ **.”

Keith leveled her with a look. “You and Katie need to stop gossipping about me and Lance at least we’re together now!”

“Yeah but that doesn’t mean we can still tease the heck outta you for taking so long.” Aoko replied grinning widely as Keith rolled his eyes. “Alright so when Kudo calls Kaito back-”

“Which we have no idea when so hovering around me is pointless!” Kaito shouted.

“If we’re lucky Kaito can give Kudo the souvenirs and take him out on a date too at the food festival,” Aoko finished with a determined look on her face.

Kaito looked absolutely sour as Chikage laughed pinched her son’s cheeks. “Now, darling don’t give that face, you like the boy don’t you?”

“I do...but I also like to be able to do this on my own…” he pouted.

“Oh yeah? Well, here’s your chance,” pointed out Keith as Kaito’s phone began beeping, indicating a message.

Everybody looked at Kaito expectantly as he sighed and picked up his phone looking at the message. His eyes suddenly widened and sparkled a bit with excitement, looking up at his family.

“He’s free this weekend!” he squeaked. “What do I do? What do I do?!”

“Invite him!” urged everyone in unison.

In a panic, Kaito fumbled with his phone rather comically before typing a response. There was a silence as everyone waited, staring at the phone in Kaito’s slightly shaking hand.

After what seemed like an eternity, he got a reply. Kaito couldn’t help but enthusiastically read the message and practically jumped out of his seat.

“WHOO! HE SAID YES!!!!!”

“Great! Now kaasan and Aoko can dress him up for his date then!” Keith said evilly making Kaito squeak as his mother and childhood best friend literally jumped him. “Have fun big bro!”

Kai flailed trying to get out of Chikage’s grip but the woman had a grip like iron and with Aoko helping the magician was helpless as he was dragged out of the house. Keith whistled happily as he sat next to Toichi who laughed as he ruffled Keith’s head as he leaned against him.

“Finally happy to get some payback on your brother?” Toichi asked amused as Keith let out a yawn, the adrenaline from helping Kaito wearing off as he nodded.

“Sooo happy. Now he get’s to suffer what I went through,” Keith replied closing his eyes.

“You mean helping him get the person he likes and making him happy.” Toichi said as Keith had a small smile on his face as he stayed close to Toichi’s warmth slowly falling asleep against him. Toichi gave Keith a fond look as he pulled over a comforter that was on the back of the couch placing it over Keith as he went back to reading his book with his youngest son sleeping against him.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shinichi sat in his office he shared at the moment with Takagi as the two of them were going over some cases. Shinichi was going to get his own office they were just in the process of clearing some stuff out of the place.

“Sorry there isn’t it much space Kudo,” Takagi said as he passed the young detective another file.”We should be almost done with it.”

“It's fine alright I think that's the last case we need to look over right?” Shinichi said as he stood up stretching a bit.

“Yeah. Man we've been buried in cases glad we can get some space between them,” Takagi said as they carried the files over to where they we're suppose to be placed. “So got any plans this weekend?” Takagi joked as they put them down and walked out.

Shinichi heard his phone go off and picked it up and he heard a small chuckle from him which was unusual since he was hardly ever on this phone.

“Shinichi?”

“Oh sorry yeah I got plans a friend is inviting me to that food festival this weekend, says they got tickets for both of us,” Shinichi replied not looking up from his phone not seeing Takagi’s and the other officers varying degrees of shock that Shinichi had actual plans then just stay home in that huge manor of his and read.” I got to go and pick up some take-out for dinner Officer Takagi I'll see you later.”

“Yeah sure…” Takagi said shocked as the police doors shut behind him.

“Hey Takagi did Kudo just say he had plans with a friend this weekend that isn’t Ran?” Sato asked.

“Uh huh…”

“Okay then… MEGURE, SHINICHI-KUN HAS A DATE THIS WEEKEND!!”

“ **_WHAT!?”_ ** Megure exclaimed as did the rest of the police force.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Yer goin on a **_date!?”_ ** Hattori exclaimed while Kazuha and Ran clapped happily and Sonoko gawked,” With who!?”

“Probably the guy that calls Shinichi Shin-Shin~” Ran giggled.

“It's not a date and he won't call me anything else I've tried to get him to stop but I gave up and just let him.” Shinichi argued back frowning at his group of friends. Hattori and Kazuha had stopped by to visit Shinichi and Ran so he got dragged off from classes to hang out with them.

“Honestly you guys are way too easy going….it’s just two guys hanging out at a festival trying sweets.”

Hattori folded his arms and rubbed his chin. “That sounds pretty Date-ish to me bro, right ladies?”

The other three copied Hattori and nodded seriously making  Shinichi throw his hands up in the air and growled frustratedly before slamming his head on the table.

_“I hate all of you….”_

“Yeah, yeah, we love ya too Kudo~” retorted Hattori playfully pulling Shinichi in and giving him a noogie. “I leave him in your hands girls!”

“Wait, Wha-?!” exclaimed Shinichi when Hattori suddenly shoved him in the direction of the trio as Ran and Kazuha quickly held his arms. “Let go!!”

Sonoko wagged a finger and smirked at the detective. “Uh-uh, Geeky~ We are going to give **you** a decent makeover for this weekend! No way you are going on a date with that drab suit you are always wearing!”

“Hey screw you! And it’s not a date!!”

“TO THE MALL LADIES!!!!”

“MA’AM!!!!” saluted Ran and Kazuha as all three charged full speed ahead with a still protesting Shinichi in tow.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Baby bro?” Kaito asked as he and Keith walked to the food festival.  

Kaito was holding a bag tightly wearing the outfit his mom and Aoko had forced onto him while Keith walked besides him as he had a hand in his pocket and the other on his phone texting his friends.

“Yeah?” Keith replied his eyes never leaving his phone.

“I know this is probably revenge for me following you on your date with Katie but really?” Kaito asked nearly whining.

“What? Technically I'm here to get food ideas for Hunk, he wants pictures and names of the food here,” Keith replied grinning,” just be thankful Aoko decides she’ll  wait for you to tell her since she's busy chatting to Matt.”

“Urgh finnneeee but no trailing after me! Swear to me or I will tell Lance some of the more embarrassing stories of you!” Kaito threatened.

“I promise,” Keith said as he put his phone away,” there are tons of stands so I'll be busy trying to see most of them.”

“Uh huh…” Kaito replied but still suspicious as his brother grinned back,”I know you're up to something…”

“Whatever gave you that idea? Oh look he's waiting and has company.” Keith replied making Kaito groan when he saw the detective from Osaka and Shinichi’s childhood friends.

“Why are they even here!?” Kaito hissed as they for closer.

“Same reason you and Aoko followed me and Katie wanted to see how this went?” Keith replied shrugging. “Come on Kaito you know you were looking forward to this.”

“I could do it without the bystanders…”

“Says the guy who has no shame pranking his class and random people.”

“This is different!”

“How exactly?”

“.....Shin-Shin!”

“Piffttt weenie..”

\-----------------------------------------------

“Is that them?” Ran asked squinting trying to look through the crowd as Shinichi wanted to crawl under a rock or disappear.

“Why are you guys here? Don't you have anything better to do?” Shinichi demanded facepalming.

“We just want to see the guy you're ‘ _not dating ‘_ that's all. And enjoy the festival for ourselves as well!” Ran replied.

“Exactly it's just a coincidence that we are here,” Sonoko replied grinning as Shinichi didn't believe her for a second.

The group stopped when they heard someone shouting.

“ _Shin-Shin!”_

The group turned to see two almost identical looking guys coming their way.

Ran couldn't help but squint a bit. “Hey.. I know that guy!” she exclaimed making Sonoko look too.

“Isn't that the guy you almost pulverised at that arcade a couple of years back?”

Ran’s face faulted."Yes Sonoko…."

Kazuha squealed excitedly as she grabbed Hattori and shook him.

“Ohmigosh, ohmigosh!!!! It's the guy from the video! **_It's the guy from the video!!!”_ ** she hissed looking straight into Hattori’s eyes.

“Um… yay?” replied Hattori unsurely.

“Kaito, hi!” greeted Shinichi as soon the two brothers arrived. “Hey, Keith. Long time no see!"

Keith exchanged a fist bump of greeting with the detective."Likewise.”

Shinichi looked at the two with interest. “So you guys are brothers? Small world.”

Hattori and Kazuha widened their eyes and shuffled closer to Sonoko and Ran.

“You guys see this too right?” he whispered to them.

“If you mean their scary close resemblance? Yeah… we noticed…”replied Sonoko dryly.

“Trust me we know…” Ran groaned. “I nearly punched the guy because I thought he was Shinichi when he was hanging out with his friend at the arcade.”

“Luckily he jumped away even taking his friend in his arms,” Sonoko said, but turned to Kazuha, “Wait the guy from the video!? Ran! Didn’t geek-boy say something about his friend planning something with his brother’s boyfriend!?”

Ran realized it too and both turned to Shinichi who was talking rather animatedly to both brothers.

“Geez what’re the chances…” Ran said shaking her head as she coughed and Shinichi turned to give her a baleful stare before sighing as he and the two brother walked over.

“Guys this is my friend I told you about Kaito Kuroba,” Shinichi introduced pointing to Kaito who waved smiling. ” and his brother Keith Kuroba who came back from the states studying there.”

Keith just waved at them, “Nice to meet you.” he replied and looked over to see Ran and Sonoko who sheepishly waved back and he couldn’t help but chuckle, “at least this time you know who’s who.”

“How is it...you guys aren't a little weirded out how much you three look alike?” Hattori couldn’t help but speak up before Kazuha elbowed him in the side harshly, “what!? It’s true!”

“That’s my friend from Osaka, Hattori and his best friend Kazuha,” Shinichi added before he shrugged, “I got use to it after Kaito and I started talking so it’s not that strange for me.”

“We’re use to it growing up together, and I’m just here to get some cooking ideas for my friend back in Altea, ” Keith replied smiling as he got a message on his phone, and laughed. “Lance...really?”

Kaito raised an eyebrow as Keith put the phone to his ear and he could faintly hear a voice recording of Lance being played.

“ His boyfriend has been texting him non-stop since he landed more or less,” Kaito snickered. “It’s adorable uh...Shin-Shin it’s just you and me right?” Kaito couldn’t help but ask as he looked at the group watching them.

“Yes I don’t know why they came, but it’s just you and me hanging out here although mind you I’m not that into sweets,” Shinichi grimaced as Kaito laughed.

“I know, I downloaded a map of the stalls and found the ones with coffee desserts or ones that aren’t so sweet,” Kaito replied making Shinichi smile at the thoughtfulness of his friend.

Some giggling from the girls made the two tensed as they turned to them with deadpanned looks.

Keith saw the look in his brother's eye and stepped forward towards the girls.

“May I treat you lovely ladies for the day? It’ll be on me~” he offered charmingly with a small bow.

Kazuha blinked a bit in disbelief. “You mean… you’ll treat us?”

Keith gave a charming smile sending trio’s hearts a flutter.

“Oh my~” Ran couldn't help but say while hearts appeared in Sonoko’s eyes.

“Please~ Lead the way~” squealed Sonoko clinging to Keith’s arm.

“Good to know at least **someone** here knows how to treat women~” jabbed Kazuha sending a look at Hattori whose eye twitched as the group walked away with Keith sending a wink towards his brother who smiled gratefully.

Hattori rolled his eyes and followed after Keith and the girls grumpily.

Kaito took the chance and turned to Shinichi. “Well, shall we?”

“After you,” offered Shinichi as the two moved off in the opposite direction.

Unbeknownst to the duo, a little drone was hovering above them, training it's camera eye their way sending footage to a certain brother’s watch.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sonoko, Ran, and Kazuha’s eyes lit up at a display of orange chantilly cakes decorated with sugar lilies that looked extremely real.

“These are beautiful! I can't believe those flowers are made of sugar!” exclaimed Ran in admiration.

“Chanti-Lily is a new parisian bakery that opened last summer in Japan by rising celebrity  patissiere, Lily Defleur,” explained Keith, admiring the display alongside them and Hattori. “You can guess from the name, their baking signature are their special Chantilly cream based cakes paired with their handcrafted sugar lilies. This brand is super popular with weddings.”

Hattori whistled, slightly impressed. “You sure are familiar with the brand.”

Keith gave a shrug. “I helped my brother study a bit before coming here, and there were a few cakes at the wedding of a friend of mine so I recognized these from there as well.”

“Still how much research did you guys do for all of this?” Ran asked as the patissiere behind the display gave them a small tray of a free samples to try. “Mmmm so good, you can really taste how soft and sweet the cakes are.”

“Enough for Kaito to know each and every stand by heart and what they sold so he wouldn’t miss out on anything and Shinichi could still enjoy himself even if he isn’t much of a sweets fan.” Keith replied amused as he took a sample for himself and trying it.

“Oh this would definitely be on the top of my list when I get to my wedding,” Sonoko said dreamily. “Oh wow look at this one!” She exclaimed as she tossed the sample plate into the trash and the group moved on towards the next table.

She pointed to where it displayed a chocolate sphere that looked like a large round jewel with the mix of dark chocolate and white making swirl designs. You could tell the chocolate was tempered welI with the shine that it had as it was sitting on top of a small brownie piece like a jewel stand. There was bits of luster dust on top of it making it glow even more the with decorative gold like piece on top of it.

“Any clue on this one?” Kazuha asked as Keith tilted his head a bit and nodded when he recognized the style due to the gold decoration.

“Yeah, it’s from a famous chocolatier Oriel Pralin. He’s known for his tempering technique to easily get the shine and sheen he requires for his personal pieces and then adding luster dust as he mixes it, finishing it with a gold decorative.” Keith explained, “he does it in a way where it’s not too much gold but just enough to make a statement, he personally likes doing chocolate art mimicking actual royal jewels or famous jewelry.”

“Oh woooww this looks like actual water running! Look at this sugar art!” Ran said watching a sugar artist pull the sugar under the heated lamp expertly, the sugar structure resembled something of a waterfall with how flowy the blue sugar looked displayed for all to see, it was very delicate work combining the sugar and making sure it didn’t fall at the slightest movement.

“Look at that cake slice! It looks like actual jewels are inside of it!” Sonoko added looking at the table next to the sugar artist, “Oh my god it looks so real with how they look like it’s glimmering and that cake looks so good and moist!?”

“The sugar artist is Carmella Azul, she specializes in sugar sculptures but her sugar candies are suppose to be the real jewels the way she makes them and actually is a world class Sugar Sculptor as well she’s  won a lot of first prizes. Beryl Kitchel specializes in cake designs and decorations. She’s known for her out of the box style decorating.”

“Wow there are some big names here,” Hattori said looking at the enthusiastic crowd, “is there some special occasion?”

“Mmmhmm, it’s the 25th anniversary of when this Sweets festival started and the one that started is world famous patisserie; Bijou Macaron. She’s here herself to commemorate the occasion, so a lot of the patisseries, chocolatiers, and bakers are trying to make an impression on her ,” Keith explained. “That’s why it’s a lot more crowded this year.”

“Oooooh!” cooed the group in interest.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Elsewhere, Kaito and Shinichi were seated at a small cafe booth where two glasses of coffee panna cotta were suddenly served to them.

Kaito lit up in delight and didn't hesitate to pick up a spoon. “ _ITADAKIMAAASU~”_ he exclaimed enthusiastically as scooped a spoonful of panna cotta into his mouth.

Suddenly it was he could see into the cosmos and the delicious combination of coffee and vanilla mixed with the cool, smooth, pudding-like texture filled his entire mouth and coated his tongue.

Stars appeared in Kaito’s eyes as a big smile grew on his face. “What heavenly manner of dessert is this?! It's sooooooo gooooood~!!!!” he swooned, taking another bite and giving another delighted squeal.

Shinichi laughed in amusement at the other's enthusiastic reaction before trying it himself. His eyes popped open in surprise. “Oh wow… this is good…”

“Right?! Right?!” agreed Kaito ready to take another spoon, only to have it clink against the empty glass bottom, having devoured the entire glass of panna cotta.

“Awww....someone ate my panna cotta…” pouted Kaito disappointedly as his lip quivered.

Shinichi raised an eyebrow before bursting out laughing. “You have a pretty cute side to you, huh?”

Kaito blew out his cheeks. “Don't call me cute!” he huffed making Shinichi laugh some more.

“Come on, here you go~” offered Shinichi, sliding his glass over to Kaito.

“Shin-Shin you barely ate any of it,” Kaito said looking at the single bite that his friend had taken from from the glass, “and it’s **_coffee._ ** ”

That alone along with Kaito looking at him as if he had handed over one of his limited editions of Sherlock books saying it wasn’t important had Shinichi snickering and covering his mouth failing to muffle his laughter. Kaito may not agree that he looked adorable but with that pout on him combine with that look made him really look like a puppy.

“You said you mapped all the other places that had coffee desserts too, so losing one won’t be that much of a loss,” Shinichi said as he took a sip of the tea he was given to eat with the cake. He had to blink when something was literally right in front of him and he had to lean his head back to see what exactly it was. It was a scoop of the panna cotta from the glass.

“We might as well share it, we’ll here so we both can try as many desserts as we can here not just me Shin-Shin,” Kaito said and couldn’t help but grin. “Now say ah~”

“Kaito there’s really no need I still have my own spoon-” Shinichi tried as he reached for his utensil but it disappeared in a puff of smoke making the magician snigger and the detective narrow his eyes at Kaito who just pushed the spoon closer. “.....Ran and the others better not be around.”

“I’m pretty sure my brother can keep them entertained and they went in the opposite direction than us,” Kaito chirped back rather happily as Shinichi sighed as he reluctantly opened his mouth and Kaito happily fed him the panna cotta, “see that wasn’t so bad.”

Shinichi made a noise before he enjoyed the dessert.

The two continued to share the dessert, Shinichi trying to insist Kaito give back his spoon which the magician adamantly refused making the detective blush when the waitresses in the cafe couldn’t help but giggle and say how cute the two of them were. They were even given special mini cakes before they left just for being so adorable.

“Please tell me you’re not planning on doing that to each and every place we go to?” Shinichi asked to the indigo-eyed man next to him while Kaito actually looked thoughtful.

“I wasn’t until you said something Shin-Shin!” Kaito laughed making Shinichi sputter and tried to argue but it was hard to argue when your companion grabbed your hand and ran down the closed off street to the next place.”Come on the next place is suppose to have a huge display of mocha profiteroles with sugar spun threads covering it and filled with different creams!”

Shinichi shook his head and couldn’t help but let the magician pull him all over making him try different desserts and actually socialize. If Ran or Hattori had tried this he’d immediately refuse and say he had cases to take care of or wanted to catch up on the newest book, but with Kaito there was just something so light and free that made him take a breath of fresh air from all the deaths that usually surrounded him. In fact that was one of the reasons he liked hanging around Kaito. His so called ‘curse’ seemed to take a backseat and could actually have a normal day and it was thanks to the random chance of talking to Kaito at that convention.

Shinichi loved solving mysteries but even he would like a day off with no one turning up dead.

He couldn’t help but squeeze Kaito’s hand in a silent thanks making the other male turn his head and Shinichi could see a few speckled flecks of red adoring Kaito’s face before he pointed out the stand he was talking about earlier. A bit later they were sitting next to each other at some tables that were set up with two large crepes in their hands as they took a break from walking, deciding to just relax for now and rest their stomachs a bit from all the samples they tried.

“Hey Kaito since we’re resting do you think I can see those souvenirs you got from Altea?” Shinichi asked curiously, he had nearly forgotten about them with Ran and the others trailing along after him to meet Kaito.

He watched as Kaito pull out the bag he had been keeping close to him the entire time they’ve been trying food and walking around, he carefully put his crepe down on the table on top of the table as he rummaged through.

“I know you love your mystery novels and probably have more than enough in that cold library of yours but I found a few that I knew you didn’t have since they’re pretty new. I made sure they weren’t any of those romance mystery novels Ran got either.” Kaito said laughing at the sour expression that Shinichi had as he took the books.

“Wow, these haven’t been brought over here yet, thanks Kaito...what’s this?” Shinichi asked as he saw a pressed strange plant in one of the pages. “A flower?”

“It’s a Juniberry blossom, it’s a rare plant that only grows in Altea,” Kaito said smiling,” I had it pressed so it would last longer I was lucky that one of Keith’s friends had connections to get those flowers.”

\-------------------------------------------------------------

At that moment, back in Altea, a certain tech prodigy was working on a new invention when she suddenly let out a big sneeze.

“Oy…I hope it's not pollen season….” muttered Katie before returning to work.

\-------------------------------------------------------------

Shinichi couldn't help but smile and trace the flower petals. “Thanks, Kaito. I love it~”

Kaito looked so delighted when Shinichi smiled, like a happy dog.

At that moment, the intercom sounded, grabbing everyone’s attention.

**_::Attention everyone! Thank you for attending the Bijou Sweets Festival! Our Live Sweets Making Exhibition is about to start in 15 mins so make your way down to the Indoor Stage at the community centre! See you soon!::_ **

With a click, the intercom shut off.

“Oooh!” cooed Kaito excitedly.

“You wanna go?” asked Shinichi even though he already knew the answer to that question.

Kaito nodded vigorously grabbing the detective’s hand as he shoved the rest of the crepe into his mouth. Shinichi held his crepe in his mouth as he quickly swooped up the bag of souvenirs before Kaito pulled him along.

The two entered the exhibit hall where there was already a growing crowd there waiting for the live sweets exhibition to take place. Everyone looked eager to see the live show, thankfully Kaito and Shinichi got there with enough time to spare to get a good spot near the front.

“I wonder what they’re going to make,” Shinichi said as Kaito bounced next to him trying to get a better view of the set up.

“Dunno, but if this is anything like what we’ve been eating outside it’s going to be delicious!” Kaito replied eagerly before there was a buzz in the intercom system confusing many of the people there. Was there a sudden change in the program? An emergency?  


**_::Hello hello all guests of the festival~::_ ** a voice flowed through the intercom system, **_::Sorry to interrupt you all but there is going to be a slight alteration today from the usual events~::_ **

There were some gasps as some recognized the voice, while Kaito growled darkly and Shinichi narrowed his eyes.

“I recognize that voice, it’s those thieves I’ve been hearing about,” Shinichi said frowning, and he saw Kaito’s surprised look making him shrug, “Hard not to hear about them bragging so much. “what the hell do they want here? It’s a sweets festival not a jewel heist.”

“Uh...actually…” Kaito said making Shinichi look at him,”remember how I said this was the anniversary of the start of the festival? There’s **_supposed_ **  to be a surprise display of what inspired Bijou Macaron to start all of this and if **_they’re_ ** here...take a wild guess what it is.”

“Okay...but they have a reputation of going after the jewels **_KID_ ** goes after and he never sent a notice other wise I would’ve seen Hakuba and Nakamori around.” Shinichi said looking around.

“Aoko would’ve told me if her dad had to come down here so I don’t know why they’re doing this.” Kaito added frowning. Maybe he would’ve been interested in the jewel if a full moon was near but Pandora could take a backseat for a bit when he wanted to spend time with his detective.

**_::Now for those who don’t recognize us we are the true shadow thieves The Eclipse Brothers Umbra and Sombra.::_ **

The cheers from some of the girls were a bit deafening though there were some grumbles from the other audience about the part about them being the true shadow thieves.

 ****_::Now many of you are probably surprised by us announcing ourselves here but our reasoning is that we were ‘encouraged’ to come and cause a bit of fun by someone at this very event! but we have a little challenge so to speak to KID and his little Shadow. The special display of Bijou Macaron’s precious heirloom jewel is somewhere here for a once in a lifetime showing we want to challenge them to see who the true thieves are~::_  


****_::The challenge will begin in two hours on top of the stage, we’ll be waiting~::_  


When the announcement ended there was a buzz of excitement going on as all the guests were talking to each other about while Shinichi had a grim look on his face while Kaito looked peeved.

“I’m sorry Kaito I have to call Megure and let them know what’s happening,” Shinichi said looking disappointed that he’d have to cut their time together short. “These guys don’t play fair unlike KID and Shadow so it’s best we don’t take any chances.”

Kaito deflated as he nodded.

“It’s part of your job or your soon to be job Shin-Shin.” Kaito said as Shinichi surprised the magician by wrapping him in a quick hug.

“After this if there’s still time after this if the festival is still on we’ll enjoy the rest of the day okay?” Shinichi said. “I really am enjoying spending time with you Kaito.”

Kaito turned red and nodded.“Okay Shin-Shin text me if anything happens okay?”

The detective nodded and pulled his phone out already having the TPD on speed-dial letting them know what was going on. Once Shinichi was out of range Kaitou picked up his own phone and hurried out of the tent, he didn’t have to wait long before Keith picked up.

“Keith, are you still with the group?” Kaito asked.

_::No, as soon as Hattori heard the announcement he went looking for Kudo and the rest followed after him wanting to know what was going on as well. I told them I’d catch up in a bit.::_

“Oh good, urgh of all the rotten timing it had to be when I asked Shinichi out,” Kaito grumbled.

_::I heard what’re they talking about Kaito? Who’re they?::_

“They’re a duo of thieves like us but for some reason they like making a mockery out of our legacy by going after the same jewels only in the daytime.” Kaito retorted back, “they started doing it probably a few months after you went back to Altea for your new semester. They’re a pain in the ass and unlike us they don’t care about casualties.”

_::That’s bad...that's really bad especially if you’re right.::_

“I know so we can’t let this go unpunished so-” Kaito started but Keith’s quiet voice stopped him, “Keith?”

 _::Kai...I...uhm meet by the picnic tables I...I need to tell you something that happened over in Altea.::_ Keith said quietly, with that he hung up leaving a worried and confused brother who shook his head and redoubled his efforts to sprint to the benches he and Shinichi were at earlier.

Luckily it seemed that Keith was close to them as Kaito saw that his brother was shifting nervously where he stood.

“Keith are you okay?” Kaito asked running up to his brother as Keith shook his head, he looked like he was on a verge of a panic attack but was managing to stay calm.

“Kai...I...I’m afraid to become Shadow.” he whispered as he held onto Kaito tightly.

“What happened?” Kaito asked as Keith grabbed his arm and pulled him to a quiet area close by since everyone in the festival were heading to the center, “What happened in Altea?”

\----------------------------------------------------------------

**_Liddy:*Presses fast forward button on remote*_ **

**_A couple of seconds past before Liddy presses the button again._ **

**_Liddy: Aaaaand Play!!!_ **

\----------------------------------------------------------------

Kaito stares as his brother stunned. “Holy Shit…”

“So you see why I'm so nervous about becoming Shadow again?”

“Actually, no I don't,” declared Kaito, surprising Keith. “From what I heard, you’ve already made peace with all your demons. Lance and Marshmallow have forgiven you too right?”

Keith kept silent but gave his brother a nod.

“And the nightmares haven't been coming back right?”

Again, another nod.

“So there shouldn't be a problem,” affirmed Kaito folding his arms. “Quit letting the small details get to you. You’ll be fine.”

“But Kai-!”

“We have our names on the line here Keith, get your head out of your ass and lets go!” commanded Kaito getting up and moving off.

Keith sighed dejectedly as he clenched his fists before glancing over at a glass window to his side. Staring back at him from the reflection was Shadow who smirked at him, teasingly waggling his fingers in Keith's direction, making the young man tense as he got up and walked off.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hattori and Shinichi stood together leaning against a wall deep in thought as the local police arrived and detained the audience in the community center much to everyone's annoyance.

“They said someone encouraged them to be here…” said Hattori first.

“So it's a safe assumption that someone hired the Eclipse brothers,” finished Shinichi. “I’m guessing the challenge bit was just their own habit of taunting Kaito Kid.”

“But Kid has never responded to their taunts before, do ya think he will actually come this time?”

Shinichi shrugged. “First time for everything right?”

“I’m betting he will come,” affirmed a new voice.

Hattori and Shinichi looked up to see Hakuba walking towards them.

“Oh yeah what makes ya so sure?” Hattori asked looking at the blonde detective.

“The challenge this time was issued to not only KID himself but also his _Shadow,_ before they never bothered to issue one since Shadow had taken place in the states. But from the police reports it’s been quiet with no heists over there,” Hakuba said.

“You really think involving his Shadow would make that much a difference?” Hattori snorted looking at Hakuba in a bit of disbelief. “Why the sudden challenge now anyway? From what Kudo said they usually only attack when KID sends a notice to the police.”

“Remember they want to prove they’re better than KID not to mention they’re a pair. What better way to prove that they’re the best by challenging not only KID but also his own partner?” Hakuba pointed out.

Hattori looked like he was going to retort when he shut his mouth and frowned.

“Ya make a point. How’d yer date go before you were interrupted Kudo?” Hattori asked nudging Shinichi who gave him a glare while Hakuba raised an eyebrow.

“He was on a date?” he asked.

“It’s not a **_date_ ** , Kaito just invited me out here and-Hakuba why are you choking?” Shinichi asked concerned.

“You’re on a **_date_ ** with **_Kaito Kuroba!?_ ** ” Hakuba wheezed, “You two are friends and romantically involved!?”

Hattori sniggered while Shinichi’s face bloomed red.

“It’s not a date and I am not romantically involved we were just hanging out as friends!” Shinichi insisted.

“Riiiight…” Hattori laughed before he was cut off by the lights dimming and centering on the stage where two thieves casually walked out front having no sense of preservation despite all the police force in front of them.

They wore opposing colors matching their names of the Eclipse brothers.

The brothers were dressed in costumes like Siegfried and Roy, only less sparkly, and patterned like the Pokemon Umbreon.

Sombra had blue accents on his costume and long blond hair tied in a low ponytail with a cowl that doubled as a mask. Umbra had golden-yellow accents and short dark hair with an identical cowl. Both brothers stood on stage with cocky smiles as Sombra addressed the audience.

“What’s up Sweets Fest attendees! My brother and I are **soooo** glad you could make it to our show~” greeted the older brother.

“And what a show we have for you~” chimed in the younger brother, Umbra. “Keep your eyes peeled as we are going to totally prove to you all who the supreme thieves are here!”

Some Eclipse fans cheered while majority of the crowd booed loudly.

 _“Take a hike you Rip-offs!!”_  heckled Sonoko from the crowd.

 _“The KIDs will cream your lame-asses out of time!!!”_ Ran yelled in agreement.

 _“And your costumes are lame!!!!”_ added Kazuha encouraging more people in the crowd to heckle the Eclipse brothers.

The brothers’ eyes twitched in annoyance at all the heckling. “Boo all you want! Wait till we stomp those KiDs to the ground!” growled Umbra.

“Patience Umbra...you can’t win them all…” hissed Sombra from the corner of his mouth.

“Can we arrest them?” Sato asked folding her arms as she watched the crowd heckle the two, she had to admit it was very amusing.

“Technically we should as they don't give back the jewels they steal,” Takagi said looking at the duo on stage,” not to mention the property damage and civilians injured in their heists too,”

“But it's a challenge and we know how KID can be with them,” Nakamori growled,” honestly I'd take KID, both KIDs then those two any day.”

“So what we wait it out?” Sato asked as she looked over at  Megure was looking over a list that was handed to him.

“Kudo-Kun I have the list you asked for!” He called as Shinichi over bringing with him Hattori who was grinning,  Hakuba who still looked sick and in disbelief while Shinichi was still red in the face. Neither of them noticed the twin thieves on stage looking over seeing the Detective of the East was actually present.

“Thanks Megure, while the thieves are busy we can figure out who exactly invited  them to the festival,” Shinichi said frowning, scanning the paper as Hakuba and Hattori looked over his shoulders.

It was subtle but here was a bit of tension in his shoulders and his voice sounded very annoyed. Shinichi’s blue eyes were narrowed as he scanned the paper looking for anyone that stood out off the top of his head.

Hattori knowing Kudo longer couldn't help but add,”are ya sure you just ain't right pissed at them for interrupting yer date with Kaito?”

That caught the attention of the TPD and Nakamori.

“Kaito is dating you?” Nakamori said not sure if he should be happy or worried for both boys.

“You're on a date here!?” Sato exclaimed excited while Megure and Takagi behind her gawked along with the rest of the TPD.

“ **For the last time it's not a date!”** Shinichi insisted his face mimicking a tomato again.

“It's a date,” Hakuba and Hattori replied flatly.

“ I swear one more comment and I will use you two as goalies for soccer practice!” Shinichi threatened making the two pale dramatically knowing how well Shinichi could handle a soccer ball.

“My my such a lovely and lively crowd today~” a voice said airly from above and everyone turned to see a figure clad in white gracefully land on the stage opposite of the brothers as they bowed to the audience.

“KID!!”

“KID-SAMA!”

“Told you he would show up,” Hakuba muttered as KID turned towards the two and folded his arms,”and looks like he's just as annoyed as Kudo.”

“So decided to show up  KID,” Umbra sneered,” where's your little shadow?”

KID’s eye looked out of the corner of his eye when Shadow didn't appear and turned back to the twins still keeping his poker face.

“Where do you think he is? He's around in his specialty,” KID replied smirking at the duo in front of him.

“What he's too good to make a grand entrance like you?” Umbra retorted as KID raised an eyebrow.

“He may be my Shadow but there are just some unnecessary things he finds he doesn't need to do,” KID replied easily,” so the challenge? Besides you really want to test if he's really here or not? It'll be all in you if you ask~”

“Fine we’ll accept that then,well you know what the race is, first one to get the jewel is the winner, and proved to be the better thieves,” Sombra said holding back Umbra,” may the best thieves win.”

“We plan to, adieu~” KID said grabbing his cape and disappearing in a flurry of his doves and confetti.

“Damn come on Sombra let's go!” Umbra scowled leaping off the stage and heading out,”you know the plan?”

“And then some,” Sombra replied smirking as they passed by the detectives.

\--------------------------------------------------

“Okay Hakuba you go talk to the first three, Hattori you take the next set and I'll take the last ones,” Shinichi said.

“We’ll keep an eye on the thieves I'm not worried about what KID will do but I am concerned about the other two,” Megure said,” everyone spread out and make sure to keep any bystanders safe, don't let them near the the duo and vice versa!”

“ **Sir!”**

 **“** You three take care too, they happen to like testing KID’s limits so we don't know what they may pull.” Nakamori said grumbling at having to let this chase happen,”and see if you can figure out who brought these two here!”

The trio nodded and separated disappearing into the crowd to figure this out as fast as they could before anyone got hurt, since it would be on the one who called them here’s fault.

\--------------------------------------------------

‘ _Good thing I contacted dad and Jiisan about the jewel,’_ Kaito thought as he moved around the festival keeping an eye out for the duo, though he felt a bitter feeling welling inside his chest when ‘Shadow’ had yet to make an appearance.

_‘Where the hell are you Keith?’_

_\-------------------------------------------------_

**_//Keith are you sure you don't want to-//_ **

_‘No, no way in hell_ !’ Keith replied as he trailed after his brother in the shadows. ‘ _You gave me enough trouble already…’_

// **_Ok, so I gave you a couple of blackouts, and almost killed your boyfriend and bestfriend. You’re not still mad are you?//_ **

_‘Still Ma-?! Are you kidding me?!’_

**_//Was that a pun?//_ **

_‘SHADOW!!!’_

**_//OK-OK!!! But Keith, come on you know I wasn't myself.//_ **

_'We are literally the same person. I know some of that was you.’_

**_//But-//_ **

‘Just back off ok?! I can do this myself!’  


Shadow finally went silent as Keith inhaled and exhaled before looking about for any signs of the Eclipse Bros. Or his brother.

He checked his watch, activating the screen. Good, it looks like his Rover is still functioning. The night vision cam had activated in the dim lighting, giving Keith a good look around the room.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sombra and Umbra were able to locate the room that contained the Cherry Ruby , a Ruby that was supposed to be the centerpiece of the festival.

With a silent ambush, the brothers viciously knocked out the guards standing watch.

“Too easy, it’s like they weren’t expecting anyone to try and really take the gem,” Umbra said as they made sure they didn’t miss any of the guards around the display.

“I believe they wouldn’t but thought it would be necessary.” Sombra replied shrugging as he knocked out the last two guards that were nearby, “it seems we have gotten here before either KIDs.”

“HA! I knew we were the better thieves than them.” Umbra said smirking as he sprayed some stuff in the air just to make sure there wasn’t any hidden security around the ruby, once the spray revealed nothing the brother’s figured it was a pressured alarm for the ruby.

Sombra was suspicious though, KID was known to make things...entertaining when he was around the jewel and thought something was off as Umbra got close to the gem and removed the glass. No alarms activated and he reached for the Cherry Ruby.

“Wait Umbra!”

“What? It’s fine we’re winning this game I don’t see what’s so wrong about-” Umbra retorted as his fingers brushed against the Ruby and Umbra let out a surprised cry when the ruby exploded releasing a smoke bomb that covered the area. They immediately covered their noses so they wouldn’t breath in whatever the smoke was but it did bring tears to their eyes with how it was stinging.

“What took you guys so long?” KID’s voice snickered above them.

“What the!?” Umbra scowled as he looked up to see KID hanging upside down by a wire looking down at them,” no way you got here before us!”

“This says otherwise,” KID replied moving his cape as he held the Cherry Ruby in his hand, “now what were you saying about being better than me? I’ll let you think about it, once I do this~” the white cladded magician said as he aimed his card gun and shot it.

The brother’s ducked out of the way, easily avoiding the shots.

“You missed, “ Sombra said.

“Wasn’t aiming for you.” KID replied as a fire alarm went off along with the jewel alarm.“Bye-bye boys~”

“That white clad bastard!!” Umbra hissed getting soaked from the fire alarms going off.

“It’s not over yet brother.” Sombra growled as the two quickly left.

\------------------------------------------------------------------

“The alarms! The thieves got the jewel now!” Megure exclaimed, “cover all the exits now! Move move move!!”

“Is it bad I want KID to win?” Takagi asked as he and Sato went to cover one of the main doors.

“Nope, I got money that the KIDs will beat the other.” Sato replied.

“Less talking and guarding! We have a duty people!” Megure yelled as Nakamori was giving instructions as well.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

KID slipped out of the hallway and was making his way out when he ducked when he felt something wiz by his face.

“Don’t get too cocky KID!” Umbra shouted aiming his flail at KID who countered with his own card gun’s to deflect the attack, “there’s two against one and we have the advantage.”

  
“You think numbers work against me?” KID retorted as he dug into his suit and tossed out several marble sized spheres that as soon as they touched the ground exploded into large inflatable animals that blocked the narrow hallway, pushing the brothers into the walls as he could hear Umbra curse and one of the animals pop but those were just the distraction that KID needed to set up more tricks along the way.

KID gritted his teeth looking for any signs of Shadow as he worked fast setting up traps around the area.

_‘Dammit bro! Where are you?!’_

“KID!!!!” snarled Umbra finally breaking free and swinging his flail at him.

KID flinched at the unexpected assault.

 **_*shing!*_ ** Something red flew out of the shadows and deflected the sharp metal weight.

KID noticed the familiar red dagger that stuck itself in the wall and turned just in time to see a  figure duck out of view.

Sombra and Umbra stood on guard as the heard the footsteps running around them.

Umbra readied himself, swinging his flail about while Sombra loaded the slingshot strapped to his left arm.

“So, it looks like Shadow Kid decided to come,” sneered Umbra."Come on out and fight!!”

The answer came in the form of another dagger flying at them as Sombra fired off a pachinko ball, deflecting the blade away.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“This was supposed to be the festival where you will be awarding the Cherry Ruby to your chosen successor, am I correct?” questioned Shinichi to a dignified looking elderly French woman with dark hair and striking green eyes.

“ _Oui,_ that was indeed the plan. I believe someone here has gotten a little too greedy,” answered the woman eyeing the suspected group of sweets makers."The Cherry Ruby is more than just a sparkly rock, _cher._ It’s deep red color and almost glowing quality is hypnotic enough to awaken the best and the worst in a person.”

The suspects all stood by, some nervous, others indignant, one or two appearing indifferent.

“Did anyone know about you giving away the jewel or was it suppose to be a surprise?” Shinichi questioned,” as did the candidates know or have any idea?”

“I may have hinted that I was choosing a successor but nothing about the Cherry Ruby being given away,” Bijou replied sighing folding her arms,” very few knew I was bringing my precious Cherry Ruby.”

“Were there people after your Ruby before today?” Shinichi asked before both jumped when they both heard the sound of the alarm going off and Bijou only frowned more sighing.

“I take that ze voleurs had found my precious jewel,” Bijou said,” though in honesty I hope ze new generation of Kaitou KID gets it than those other imbéciles.”

Shinichi blinked surprised as he looked at the woman who was smiling.

“The new generation?” He asked making the woman chuckle.

The woman had a fond smile on her face,” I had grew up with the stories of Kaitou KID as a young girl, and these eyes just know it may be Kaitou KID but at the same time it's not.”

“I see,” Shinichi said filing away the information for later,” so if you were to name your candidates would they know they were in the running?”

“My student and some of the others, Monsieur Kitchell and the others are masters of their crafts and very impressive,” Bijou replied,”but again I wasn't going to say anything until later today.”

“Would you have any idea who would want to steal the Ruby?” Shinichi asked,” anyone here?”

“Plenty of people child but very few knew about me bringing it. Last thing I wanted was any unwanted attention that distracted from the food. That backfired to whomever decided to ruin it by calling those thieves here.”

“I see, so besides you and a select few only knew the jewel was here, may I get those names?” Shinichi asked as Bijou nodded.

“The sooner we stop this the better.” Bijou replied.

\---------------------------------------

“Heeeeeh? Madam Macaron actually brought the heirloom here? Damn that's news to me kid.” Oriel said rubbing the back of his head,”honestly the rumors are she never lets that jewel leave her home so for her to bring it here means something big was planned.”

“And you have no clue as to what that could mean.” Hakuba asked.

“Not a clue, sure a bit of gossip here and there but nothing really concrete if I'm honest.” Oriel replied,” though I heard that her student Lilly knew about it since she trained with Madam Macaron so she would probably know before anyone if that was going to be moved anywhere.”

“You think so?” The blonde detective questioned jotting down notes.

“Well yeah? I mean she trained at Madam Macaron’s home since she prides herself in training her students privately.” Oriel explained,” though I heard they got into a bit of a tiff but that again could be just gossip again.”

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Yes I knew about the Ruby and I also know the successor was not going to be me,” admitted Lily Defleur coolly. “I actually renounced my candidacy to be her successor. Madame and I have vastly different tastes in aesthetics, she believes dazzling people with flashy sweets, and I preferred the subtle elegant approach.”

“There is a rumor saying you got into it with Madame,” noted Shinichi.

Lily gave a heavy sigh.

“It must be referring to that argument we had last year when I announced I was opening my own brand ‘Chanti-Lilly’ instead of taking over ‘Bijou L'Amour’, Madame’s pâtisserie brand.”

\--------------------------------------------------------------

“Lilly was one of my prized pupils and truly gifted. Yes, our argument was bad and our aesthetics differed but I admit I was wrong about her. She was able to make a name for herself all on her own and stuck to her convictions,” clarified Madame Macaron sitting in a chair. “We have long since made up and I have given her my acknowledgement as an artist. Honestly, I find it hard to believe she would even consider stealing the Ruby for herself…”

“I know ya had planned yer  successor to be a surprise but can we know the names? Or do you think one of them found out about their own candidacy?” Hattori asked as Shinichi was interviewing Lilly,”and can you tell me about your relationship with them?”

“I suppose by this point the surprise is ruined with the thieves running around,” Madame Bijou replied,” alright child here are the names I don't know how much help they will be.”

Hattori nodded as he wrote down the names Madam Bijou had listed down as the ones to name her successor and any other. Hattori looked surprised when she mentioned nodding as he wrote down more information.

“This actually helps thank you Madam Bijou,” Hattori said as he picked up his phone to call Kudo and Hakuba and hopefully they could figure this out before anyone got hurt.

\--------------------------------------

KID escaped the building and looking around he was relieved that most of the festival goers weren't around and probably safe.

“You can't escape us KID! We’ll get that jewel!” Umbra snarled as he threw out his flail but it was once again blocked by another dagger making Umbra curse,”Dammit Shadow show your freaking face!”

KID was still frowning as he looked around for any signs of Keith, he was glad that he was helping but it would be a lot more appreciated and helpful if he wasn't on the sidelines.

Sombra was quiet as he took aim and shot at the magician but like before he was protected.

As they continued to chase the thief around the near empty festival he spotted three detectives heading back to the area and smirked.

“Hmm Umbra plan B,” Sombra said.

“Finally,” Umbra growled as Sombra took over and fired shots at KID keeping the other thieves busy while Umbra got to work.

Umbra saw his target and pressing a button on his flail the chain extended and wrapped around a certain detective pulling him into the fray.

“KUDO!”

“Kudo-san!”

KID felt his heart stop when he saw his Tantei-Kun grabbed and tangled up in Umbra’s grasp. He stood ontop one of the cafes scowling as the brothers grinned at him.

“Now this is a turnabout wouldn't you say KID?” Sombra said as Shinichi tried kicking at the brothers but hey moved out of the way,”now KID, how about a trade? The jewel for-”

Sombra didn't even have to finish his sentence before the jewel was chucked at Umbra’s face nearly knocking his head off. Though that did cause him to loosen his hold on the detective allowing KID to catch him in his arms.

“You idiot,” Shinichi said as KID still had that dark look on his face

“You're more important.” KID retorted as Shinichi rolled his eyes. ”and for the record I'm not giving up but I don't want you taken again Tantei-kun.”

Shinichi smirked as he out of habit still wore his soccer belt,” like I'd let that happen again, let's get that jewel back KID.”

Umbra rubbed his nose and growled. “Sombra, go long!!!” he yelled chucking the ruby through the air.

Sombra ran across walls and jumped from ledge to ledge before launching himself in the air.

“Oh no you don't!” exclaimed Shinichi powering up his foot as football popped out from his buckle.

With a swift kick, the detective sent the ball hurdling through the air towards Sombra, who as soon as he caught the gem simultaneously fired a pellet at the ball, causing it to pop loudly in mid air with a loud bang.

Majority of the people shrieked as they instinctively ducked, having mistaken the sound for a gunshot.

“Let's go Umbra!!!” called Sombra turning and running.

Umbra aimed his flail upward as it grappled onto an overhanging beam allowing him to swing towards his brother. Sombra held up an arm and allowed his brother to grab him as both brothers got reeled upwards.

KID and Shinichi opened fire with a barrage of balls and cards but the Eclipse brothers were quiet the artful dodgers as they kept themselves well out of aim.

“LATER SUCKAS!!!!” taunted Umbra with a cackle.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------

Keith clenched his fists as he watched the Eclipse thieves getting away as his mini rover beeped furiously next to him.

**//KEITH! Either we keep arguing about this or we let those two clowns get away!!!//**

Keith let out a frustrated sigh before running away from the crowd.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The thief and detective bounced from stall to stall keeping their eyes on the Eclipse brothers who were skillfully free running along the building protrusions.

“Of all times for your hang glider to not work!!” growled Shinichi.

“It's hang **glider** not flyer! You know damn well it's useless at this height!” snapped KID back as he felt for his cards and clicked his tongue. He was running low.

“Where's your Shadow now, KID?” he heard Sombra sneer from above, making the thief growl in response.

 _‘Dammit BROTHER!!! I NEED YOU!!!’_ he mentally screamed in frustration.

At that moment the two heard the crowd below gasp and exclaim excitedly as the almost silent roar of jets could be heard.

KID looked over his shoulder to see what everyone was looking and pointing at, making him smirk.

Coming towards him fast was a familiar black motorcycle with jet wings flying straight in his direction with the rider holding a hand out for him.

KID turned to Shinichi and saluted to him as he held up an arm, letting the rider snatch him up and swing him onto the back of the bike as everyone cheered loudly.

“GO GET EM’ KIDS!!!!" cheered Sonoko wildly as Ran and Kazuha held hands and jumped up and down excitedly.

Hakuba looked at the KiDs and gave a small smirk."Give em’ hell you guys…”

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“What took you so long bro?!” yelled KiD over the rush of the wind as he held on to his top hat.

“We’ll talk later. Let's get that ruby back,” answered Shadow as the KiDs began gaining on the Eclipse Bros.

\--------------------------------------------------------------

“Fuck! Sombra!!!” called out Umbra in a panic looking over to his brother.

“Go!!!” commanded Sombra, flinging the ruby to his brother who used his flail to gain more distance as he swung away from the vicinity.

Sombra began firing pellet after pellet in an attempt to slow the oncoming flying vehicle but was surprised when they were deflected by an electric shield.

“Oh crap, did not see that coming…” muttered Sombra under his breath as KiD leapt from the bike.

“HIIIIYAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!” roared KiD lunging at a startled Sombra.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“A flying motorcycle! Who da fuck has a **_flying_ ** motorcycle?!” growled Umbra swinging from building to building and street lamp to street lamp.

He could still hear the roar of the engines behind him and tried to pick up the pace as he tried to get more distance between them by going higher. Once he landed on a rooftop he didn't stop moving it he would've if a tiny bot didn't suddenly hit his head out of nowhere beeping furiously.

“Ow!! Dammit what the fucking hell!” He exclaimed Umbra as he glared at the bot that seemed to mock him through beeping,”I'll turn you into scrap metal you piece of junk!”

He flung his flail as hard as he could but he didn't expect an electric shield to pop up zapping him as the electricity coursed through the metal weapon.

“You're really brilliant aren't you,” Shadow’s dry voice as the rover bot floated back to Shadow who had landed on the rooftop.

“Finally decided to show your face? What happened you got scared?” Umbra sneered gripping his flail tightly.

“No, my brother was handling you two just fine until you decided to go after the detective. Really, if anything it just made it worse for you two.” Shadow replied sighing mockingly,” I'm sure by now he's dressed your brother up in a costume or two with the works. But enough of that, let's see who really is the better thief.”

Shadow took out his push dagger immediately making it longer as he sprinted forward towards Umbra who growled and tried to keep distance between them. Shadow moved his blade to shrug off the attack while grabbing one of his daggers and slamming it into one of the chain links as the blade was buried in the rooftop so Umbra couldn't retract his weapon.

“Dammit!” The other thief cursed as he tried pulling his weapon back but had to let go when Shadow nearly skewered him with his blade.

“Now who's scared?” Shadow smirked as he kept Umbra on his toes since now he was weaponless and didn't have anyone he could use as a hostage. ”KID didn't have to explain much about you two jokers, going after his heists jewels in the daytime and keeping the jewels.”

“That's what thieves do!” Umbra shot back as he ducked under the blade and tried to attack Shadow but the other thief was easily dodging as he and Sombra had earlier.”What kind of thief only does one heist and on the same kind of night each time! It's stupid! Especially giving back the jewels!?”

“Unlike you we have no interest in that kind of materialistic hoarding,” Shadow remarked,” and what we do or how we do our heists is our business!”

“Yeah well it's stupid your whole ‘no one gets hurt and returning the jewels’! Your whole family legacy of it is the dumbest shit ever for a bunch of well known thieves!”

Shadow seemed to freeze and stilled for a moment when Umbra said that, eyeing the thief he gave a smirk himself.

“The truth hurts doesn't it?” Umbra mocked before Shadow’s head snapped up at Umbra and the other thief swore he saw the eyes behind the mask flash. Before he could blink, several daggers blurred past him and he found himself pinned to the rooftop. He tried moving but the daggers were dangerously close to his actual limbs.

“You really don't know when to shut up don't you?” Shadow said in a darker voice than before as he grabbed Umbra’s jaw and pried it open as he poised a dagger over him. **_“Let's hear how you will talk when I cut out your flippant tongue!”_ **

Umbra let out a cry of fear and began sweating profusely as he helplessly watched the dagger lower towards his mouth, his jaw being tightly held open.

Suddenly, a gloved hand gripped Shadow’s wrist, causing him to suddenly snap back to his senses as the thief realized what he was about to do and quickly let go of Umbra and dropped the dagger.

“Shadow… that's enough…” commanded KiD slowly releasing his brother's wrist.

Shadow exhaled and composed himself. “Aye….” he responded softly while Umbra promptly passed out in relief.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hattori snorted in annoyance as he watched sugar artisan Carmella Azul getting hauled away into the back of a police van with the Eclipse brothers.

“Aww...It’s no fun to solve a mystery if the culprits are gonna rat each other out….” he complained, folding his arms.

“Three major amateur detectives right here and the case solved itself before them….the irony….” muttered Kazuha under her breath.

“HA! I knew the KIDs could do it!” Sonoko snickered as she watched the Eclipse brothers gleefully get taken away by Megure and the the rest of the TPD. “At least now we can go back and enjoy Kid-sama’s heists with no copy-cats ruining it for the rest of us!”

“Oh yay that's wonderful…” Hakuba said dryly but he was kinda glad they were gone and he could concentrate on trying to capture KID, and the police wouldn't have to worry about the jewels not being returned.”Hopefully once they take them in they can return the jewels they took.”

“Oh yeah! Now those owners could get their possessions back!” Kazuha said clapping happily.” so it's a win-win!”

“To be fair they were bound to be sore losers, so it's not surprising they would rat the one who hired them.”Ran said. “Did you guys figure out if they hadn't tattled?”

“Well Oriel said that Carmella had a bit of a gambling problem even when she was just starting out, nearly lost her bakery if she hadn't done something though after this I doubt she’ll get any businesses though,” Hattori commented and looked over at Shinichi who was watching KID and Shadow as they were talking with Madam Macaron, or at least KID was Shadow wasn't looking at his partner and was standing a bit away from him.

” How're you holding up Shinichi?” Hattori asked as the detective next to her rubbed his head.

“I'm fine, honestly it wasn't as bad as you think it was besides I got out of there quick enough.” Shinichi replied.

“You mean when KID nearly took Umbra’s head off as soon as he took you,” Ran snickered. ”The thief has a good arm who knew he was so protective of you?”

“It's sweet,” Kazuha cooed as Sonoko made a face but she sighed.

“As much as I hate to admit it, seeing KID-sama go after that fake thief so determined to get you was fun to watch and all the stuff KID-sama did to Sombra was great.” Sonoko added,”plus did you see Shadow come galavanting in on a **_flying motorbike!!_ ** ”

“Okay that was pretty cool,” Hattori admitted only having a normal bike himself.”Had to be customized since there's no way those are mass produced.”

“Uh huh,” Shinichi said still watching KID and Shadow.

“Something up Kudo?” Hattori asked wondering what his friend was so concerned about,” KID and his Shadow are fine if you're worried they got hurt.”

“It's not that don't you think something is up with Shadow?” Shinichi asked getting the group’s attention.”Usually the two are side by side when working together but Shadow took a while to appear and just look at the body language it's like he's nervous or something.”

“Maybe he just doesn't like being about when it's still light out,” said Hattori with shrug." Come on, let’s go find your boyfriend.”

Shinichi couldn't help but blush furiously."He is **not!”** he hissed, going after Hattori but not before giving KiD and Shadow one last glance.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

It took a while but the group soon managed to locate Kaito and Keith waiting in the parking lot where they were waiting by the most gorgeous looking red motorcycle Hattori had ever seen.

“Kaito!” called Shinichi waving to them.

Kaito smiled and walked over to them while Hattori zipped past him and made a beeline to check out Keith's ride.

“You're ok!”exclaimed Kaito happily.

Shinichi gave a small smile and scratched his cheek a bit. “Heh, yeah. Guess I owe KiD one, right?”

Kaito chuckled back awkwardly as both boys exhaled at the same time.

“Kaito.. Look, I’m sorry our day out together got messed up, I heard from Hattori how much study time you put into today…”

Kaito put up his hands. “Hey don't worry about. Crime doesn't wait for no one, right?”

Shinichi couldn't help but chuckle. “It's **_time_ ** waits for no man, but thanks for understanding…” he said gratefully as he held up a cake box to the other, who blinked at him confused. “Here, take it… Madame Macaron gave this to me as thanks but I want you to have it. I think you’ll appreciate it better…”

Kaito’s mouth slowly dropped open as he took the specially designed cake box that looked like a little jewelry box. A signature packaging of Madame Macaron’s ‘ _Bijou L’Amour’_ brand. Slowly, he opened it to see an assortment of little cakes that were decorated beautifully to look like sparkling jewels. The light from the setting sun refracted on the sugar crystalline pieces, creating a shimmering effect in the package that made Kaito’s eyes grow big and sparkle too as looked up at Shinichi. The young detective was caught slightly off guard by how big and bright Kaito’s eyes were as he couldn't help but blush a little.

  
“Thank you, Shin-Shiiiiin~!” exclaimed Kaito happily looking like a excited puppy.

Shinichi coughed to compose himself. “Right… since today was kind of a bust…why don't I make it up to you… say.. Next weekend?”

Kaito’s eyes got even brighter as his smile grew so wide you could fit a banana in sideways.

“YES~!!!!”came the most enthusiastic reply.

 _“I have dibs on Shinichi’s BEST MAN!!!!”_ declared Hattori from Keith's motorcycle as the girls and Keith laughed.

Shinichi bristled up as his cheeks got redder in embarrassment.

 **_“SHUT UUUUUUUPPPP!!!!!”_ ** he wailed going after Hattori as everyone laughed together in amusement.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At the prison, a guard walked down a hallway swinging his baton about.

“LIGHTS OUT PEOPLE!!” he called out as lights started going out from the cells left and right.

The guard suddenly stopped at a particular door as he covertly slipped in a small packet through the food slot before going on his merry way, whistling.

Inside, Sombra who had a bandage over his black eye smirked as he picked up the packet. “Oh look little brother, our friend sent us a care package~”

Umbra looked over to Sombra who removed a key from the packet making him smirk as well.

“We’ll make that KiD pay…” snarled Sombra while Umbra clenched his fist.

 _“And his dumb Shadow too…”_ added the younger brother under his breath angrily.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Preview:
> 
> Katie had changed so much since Catherine last saw her before she ran away three years ago.
> 
> She used to be so quiet and meek and she had the most beautiful hair and enjoyed wearing the dresses Catherine bought for her. Now, the child she knew was a young woman with a new fire in her eyes and carried herself assertively. However, she also seemed to have become aloof.
> 
> Was this really her same little girl?


	2. Like Mother, Like Daughter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katie makes up time with her mother but has to relearn how to live back home now

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp decided to just post all the chapters since me and Liddy are working on a new story so enjoy this and one more to go~

“Katie! Here you can cut the vegetables,” Catherine Holt called. “Come down here and help me you've been in your room all day!”

Katie blew her bangs out of her hair as she looked out her door,”Alright I'm coming mom!”

Katie sighed as she looked at her current project which was improving the rover bots, as her first rover hovered over her like a worried pet.

“Come on boy let's go help mom,” Katie said as she took off her goggles and gloves. Ever since she came home with Matt she's hardly gotten any time to herself as her mom while she had missed her a lot seemed to want to spend every waking moment with her.

“Not that I don't understand but would an hour to myself hurt?” She said as she walked downstairs where Matt was in the kitchen too stirring a pot.

“Katie here you can chop the carrots and potatoes.” Catherine said as she pulled Katie over to another cutting board.

“Uh sure, what're we making?” Katie asked as she washed her hands before moving over.

“Beef stew!” Catherine replied happily,” it's a good dish where all of us can help. Do you need help cutting the vegetables sweetie?”

“Oh I'm fine, Hunk taught me how to cut vegetables when I would help him in the kitchen.” Katie replied rolling up her sleeves and started,”He's a really good cook mom.”

“Oh, okay,” Catherine said disappointed she couldn't teach or help her daughter with the vegetables.

The woman looked over to her now 16 year old daughter who handled the knife easily. 

Katie had changed so much since Catherine last saw her before she ran away three years ago. 

She used to be so quiet and meek and she had the most beautiful hair and enjoyed wearing  the dresses Catherine bought for her. Now, the child she knew was a young woman with a new fire in her eyes and carried herself assertively. However, she also seemed to have become aloof. 

Was this really her same little girl? 

“Ok, mom. The vegetables are done,” informed Katie setting the chopped vegetables down next to the pot. “Is that all?”

Catherine snapped out of her thoughts and looked. “Oh um… yeah… thanks sweetie….”

Katie nodded before trotting her back into her room. The second the mother heard the door slam, Catherine couldn't help sink into a chair, sighing heavily. 

\---------------------------------------------------------------- 

Katie leaned against her bedroom door and sighed heavily too. 

Rover beeped softly as Katie opened her arms and the little robot floated over to her and she hugged the little robot.

“I didn't think it would be this hard,” Katie said softly her fingers tracing the cool metal of Rover,”I mean I knew it was going to be difficult reconnecting but it's so awkward…”

The little robot just beeped trying to comfort the girl as Katie smiles.

“I know, I just have to adjust being back home and that I have my mom and Matt with me,” Katie said though she shifted a bit as she walked back to her desk, resting her head on the top,”but what am I supposed to tell her? That I've been a vigilante for a good year and then partnered up with two thieves and fought for our lives? Yeah that'll be a good conversation starter.”

Katie groaned as she tried to think of something because when she went back down again to eat dinner once the stew was done she knew there was going to be table talk.

“If I talk about my time at Altea Tech it should be okay?” Katie mumbles poking Rover who hummed,”at least I know Matt has my back since we told him what happened.”

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Matt what can you tell me about Katie I mean….she's obviously changed so much in three years….” Catherine asked looking at her son.

“Uh well she's the youngest student at Altea Tech and she's really good with programming and robotics, that robot of hers she calls Rover is like a pet to her.”

“She did like tinkering with robots and computers even as she was growing up…” Catherine said softly.” I don't mean to put you on the spot Matt but I'm just a bit lost I still see her as my sweet baby girl..”

Matt looked up from his laptop and gave his mother reassuring smile. “I know what you mean Mom, I felt the same when I first saw her after a while,” admitted Matt, putting down his laptop before walking up to her and giving her a hug. “Just give her some time to adjust being back home.”

Catherine sighed giving her son a squeeze. “I guess you’re right….” she sighed before making her way back to the kitchen. “Maybe I should bake something...we haven’t had a little welcome home party for her yet…”

“You’re the best Mom~!” cheered Matt.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Katie sat her desk and sighed. It just feels so weird being back home...her  **real** home, knowing that her own flesh and blood are on the other side of the door. No obnoxious yelling or stupid puns from Lance, no yummy smells of Hunk or Coran’s cooking, the little mice that helped her out with inventing, Allura coming in to check on her every now and then…

Katie’s eyes rested on her green deluxe toolbox that Keith got her as she heaved an even heavier sigh and lay her head on her desk.  _ ‘And no Keith to show me cool tricks or give advice….’ _

“I miss everyone…..” she whined sadly as Rover sat on her head and beeped comfortingly.

Katie put her head against the desk on her hands wondering if she should call them and see how they were doing but shook her head. The others were probably still settling in back in their own homes and Allura would have her hands full with not only the twins but actually living with Shiro now as well. That and Keith being in Japan she had to watch for the timezones so she wouldn’t accidentally call him up at 3am in the morning and she knew how grumpy he could be when woken up too early. She couldn’t help but giggle, even after yelling at Kaito so much he had yet to change his alarm tone from when Kaito first messed with it.

“Why is this so hard?” Katie groaned, give her something to build and she’ll build it within an hour with more improvements then you can think of, give her something like actually talking to her family that she hadn’t seen for three years that’s a mountain she wasn’t sure she was ready to climb, “I mean Matt was pretty accepting but that’s only because he was involved but with mom what can I do?”

She grabbed her pen and spare notebook sitting up properly as she tried to think of something that would help, her hand mindlessly doodling when a familiar smell wafted through making her straighten up and look at the door. She couldn’t help but slid out of her chair and open the door quietly making her way downstairs and peeked into the kitchen where she smelled something she hadn’t since she left.

“.....remember how Katie would try to sneak the bowl away and eat the rest of the cookie bowl but we’d let her?” Matt laughed as he rolled some dough in his hands before placing it on another sheet pan, “or how’d she beg to lick the spoon?”

Catherine smiled fondly as she looked down at the mixing bowl, “Katie did love my peanut butter cookies.   


“Mom, you make the  **best** peanut butter cookies which is why when you did make them you had to hide them in a jar where Katie wouldn’t reach it or else she’d devour them all.” Matt snickered as he turned his head and saw Katie peeking into the kitchen and smiled, “you know...since Katie isn’t here does that mean I can FINALLY lick the spoon?” 

Catherine shrugged while rolling her eyes in amusement. “Think fast, Matt!” she exclaimed as she tossed the spoon over to Matt, only for Katie to leap out and snatch it in mid-flight.

“Too slow bro~!” smirked Katie enjoying her prize while Matt clicked his fingers in slight disappointment and just shook his head at his sister.

Catherine couldn’t help but laugh. This was just like the old days. “Your sister was always more faster than you Matt~” she chuckled in amusement before suddenly hearing a small beeping. “What was that?”

Katie and Matt eyed her blinking watch before the girl quickly hid her arm behind her back as she and Matt gave their mother nervous smiles and shrugged.

“Uuuh….I gotta go….check on Rover….” excused Katie, quickly dashing back to her room, slamming the door behind her.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Katie quickly locked the door as she looked at the alert on her KiD watch. An unknown caller.

The girl looked a little grim. If it’s unknown, she had a pretty good idea who it was as she tapped it.

“Pidge speaking,” answered Katie, walking over and sitting down on her bed.

_ ::I have a job for you, dear::  _ a familiar female voice spoke.  

Katie made a face but sighed giving in as she pulled out her laptop, she nibbled on some of the cookie dough and sighed forlornly. She had almost eased into being around her mom and brother, Matt knew Katie couldn’t resist their mom’s peanut butter cookies so he was the one that probably suggested it. She just felt bad she had to cut it short.

“Alright what’s the job?” Katie asked while there was some chuckling on the other side.

_ ::Not even going to ask what I’m going request for you to do dear?:: _ the voice replied amused.

“I think it’s probably best I don’t know what it is exactly you want me to do or to whom,” Katie replied as she grabbed the wooden spoon and licked the cookie dough off of it like a lollipop,” so what is it?”

_ ::Nothing much I just need some information to help a dear silver bullet of mine~:: _

“Silver bullet? Does everyone you care about have a nickname?” Katie couldn’t help but ask as Vermouth sent over the information she needed to get for her. Once the girl had all the details she was quickly already going through some firewalls, “or is it another partner?”

_ ::A little bit of both actually, it’s been a while and just needed to make sure that everything was in order.:: _ Vermouth replied.

“Still nothing on my father?” Katie couldn’t help but ask.

_ ::Nothing quite yet but we believe we are getting closer, just focus on the task we give you I promised I would let you know if we found anything regarding your father.::  _ Vermouth replied.  _ ::Let me know when you’re done.:: _

“Will do Ma’am…” answered Katie, cutting off the connecting before diving straight into work.

The task was a hacking job, which for someone like Katie who once hacked into the Pentagon out of boredom was as easy as breathing. All Katie needed was a few minutes and she would be cracking through firewalls in no time.

Unfortunately for her though, a knock came on the door. 

_ “Hey Katie! Dinner’s ready!” _  she heard Matt call.

Katie clenched her fists a little. “I’m not hungry!” she yelled back.

_ “Katie! Just open the door would you!!” _

Katie gave a small irritated growl and got up from her desk, stomping to the door.

_ “What?” _ she hissed softly throwing open the door, making Matt throw up his hands in defense.

“Woah, woah little sister! Don’t attack the messenger!”  pleaded Matt making Katie take a deep breath to calm herself.  

Once he affirmed that Katie had calmed down, Matt proceeded. “Look sis, I know you’re busy and everything, but Mom worked  **really** hard to make a dinner and dessert just for you...so...please? For Mom?”

Katie looked over back to her computer before giving a defeated sigh. “Well...ok..for Mom…” she said with a small smile, stepping out of her room and closing the door.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Katie fidgeted uncomfortably as she ate her stew. Part of the reason was because she really wanted to get back to work but most of her discomfort was caused by her mother intently staring at her.

She wanted to say something but wasn't quite sure what it was her mom wanted in terms of where they were in their relationship.

Matt sat between them eating the stew between them watching the two have a bit of a staring contest, he knew his mom could be intense when she wanted to know something...they had to inherit their stubbornness from somewhere.

“Uh so Katie how long did it take for you to make Rover?” Matt asked randomly. “It seems really intelligent for just a bot. I love how you named after our old Dane.”

“Oh uh not that long? I finished Rover rather quickly in my first year though I probably wouldn't have been able to if Keith didn't help me,” Katie replies as she couldn't help but smile when she thought about her best friend.

“Who is Keith?” Catherine asked curiously.

Katie couldn't help but grin even more when her mom asked her that question.

“He's my best friend! He was my roommate when I stayed in the Lion House in Altea Tech, he's really cool he can do magic and is pretty decent with electronics he actually gave me some really good advice when I was working on Rover in our room, ” Katie said smiling as she likes bragging about Keith to others sometimes.

“Wait Katie your roommate was a guy?” Catherine asked concerned.

_ ‘Ah shoot! That’s right Mom didn't know I was posing as a guy!!’  _ Katie suddenly remembered, mentally kicking herself. 

“Um… yes?” she answered nervously. “But it's alright! Keith was a real gentleman and took care off me! Plus Allura made sure I had everything I needed!”

“Plus Keith isn't interested in girls!” added Mart  quickly in an attempt to quell the situation but all that did was earn him a look from Katie which easily said  **_'Shut up, Matt!’_ ** and a slightly appalled look from Catherine. 

“Matt did you know about this?!” demanded the woman making Matt swallow and shrink in his chair. 

“Look Mom, it's no big deal, it's over,” dismissed Katie but that made Catherine slam a hand on the table. 

“ **_No big deal?!_ ** My baby girl spent three years enrolled in  **_college_ ** without my knowledge in a house full of  **_boys!!!”_ ** despaired the woman freaking out. “Just what was that crazy matron of yours thinking! Rooming you with a  **hormonal, teenage boy?!** God knows what they did without you knowing….maybe sift through your lady things  **_‘Gasp!’_ ** What if there was hidden  **_camera_ ** in your room-”

**_*BANG!!*_ **

This time it was Katie’s turn to slam her fist on the table. 

“That's enough Mom! I won't stand around and listen to you slander the Lion House’s good name!” snapped the girl angrily causing Catherine to be taken aback. “You don't even know them at all!!”

“Don't you talk to me that wa-!”

“Allura is a wonderful matron and takes good care of all us!!! Coran was like an uncle to me!! A nutty one but still!”  

“And the guys were nothing short of good people!! Hunk is the sweetest guy I have ever met and the gentlest person in the whole wide world!!! Lance, maybe he's a little dramatic but he is more righteous and law abiding than anyone I have ever known!! And Keith… Keith has the most warmest, kindest heart and the most purest soul more than any person in this world!!!” defended Katie, fiercely glaring at her mother. “These people were more than just housemates to me, in these past few years! They were my **_family!!! A family that actually_ ** **_believed_ ** **_in me!!!!”_ **

**_*WHAP!*_ **

Matt widened his eyes and covered his mouth while Katie looked stunned while her cheek stung. Catherine herself looked shocked at what she done as she stared at her hand which struck her daughter across the face. A pain filled her heart as Katie gave her the same dark look she gave so many years ago the night before she disappeared. A look that haunted Catherine for many nights. 

Katie kept silent as she slowly stood up from the table. “Thanks for the meal… “ she said coldly, exiting the dinner table and made her way up to her room where a door was heard opening and closing shut. 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Katie looked so hurt yet regretful as she clenched the doorknob tightly considering to go out and apologizing but instead she exhaled heavily and leaned her forehead against the door instead. 

With a click, Katie locked her door before turning around and leaning her back against the wood as she slid down to floor sobbing and curling up into a ball. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

“Mom...that…” Matt said as he looked to where Katie had stormed back to her room to his mom who sat in the chair with her face in her hands, he looked like he wanted to say some more but sighed as he sat down and wrapped his arms around his mom who was still in shock about what she had done to Katie. That look that Katie gave her was still embedded in her brain.

“I just...I was just worried about her...she was alone for three years Matt and I hear she stayed with boys in a dorm at school?” Catherine said quietly as she removed her hands from her face but her fists were clenched tightly.

“Your reaction was...even if it was mean to the guys at the Lion House it’s understandable mom you were worried about her like any mother would be with their missing child,” Matt replied “I know you missed Katie and all but the people in the house really aren’t like what you’re thinking. I was surprised too when I found out but I got to know the guys and they really are good. They’re probably the best people Katie could’ve gone to, besides you met Allura she married Shiro do you really think someone like her could do anything bad?”

Catherine paused as she remembered the beautiful wedding she and Matt were invited to as Shiro’s family. Shiro had introduced her to Allura when they first started dating, explaining that she was a childhood friend he had missed and eventually fell in love with again. She seemed so elegant and kind when they first met and then again at the wedding, she was nothing but kind and excited to meet the person who had helped raise Shiro. She watched Shiro interact with her and he was smiling so peacefully and happy something she hadn’t seen on his face for years.

“Mom...maybe...maybe you can talk to Shiro and Allura? They know about Katie’s situation more or less and wouldn’t mind helping you understand.” Matt said softly as he took out his cellphone from the back of his pocket. He pressed it gently into her hand.

“Okay...if...I want Katie back but I don’t want her to hate me like she did when she left.” Catherine said quietly.

“I think she was more frustrated we didn’t believe her than hating us at the time,” Matt said softly,” you know how passionate she can get when she’s onto something but call them mom I’ll bring up some food for Katie okay don’t worry.”

“Thank you sweetie,” Catherine sniffed as she pressed Shiro’s number on the speed dial. 

It didn’t take very long before the man picked up himself.

_ ::Matt? What’s up? Shhhh Kichiro this is daddy’s phone no no no you don’t grab it! You’re suppose to be asleep buddy,:: _

Catherine couldn’t help but smile when she heard the baby coo on the other side of the line.

“Hello Takashi, it’s not Matthew.” Catherine said softly.

_ ::Ah! Kaasama, how’re you?:: _ Shiro asked as Catherine couldn’t help but giggle, even after all this time he still called her  _ kaasama _ when he didn’t need the formality and could just call her mom.

“I’m...Takashi can I ask you a few questions please? It’s about Katie.” Catherine asked not wanting to sugar coat anything.

_ ::Oh sure let me just sit down, Allura and I are trying to get the twins to sleep but it seems they inherited their mother’s stubbornness.:: _

**_::Inherited WHOSE stubbornness Takashi?::_ ** Allura’s voice called from the background followed by the babies laughing.  **_::I’ll have you know you’re more stubborn than me!::_ **

Catherine gave a small laugh. “Have you tried the light bouncing and back rubbing method? That was how I got Matt and Katie to sleep when they were babies.”

_ ::Really?! Hang on I’ll give it try! Be back in a flash!::  _  replied Shiro excitedly.

Catherine heard the phone being put down followed by a quick patter of feet. After a few seconds, the sound of baby gurgling faded out slowly. 

_ ::Are you still there?::  _ Shiro asked in a hushed whisper.  _ ::You were right! It worked!:: _

Based on how he sounded, Catherine could figure out he was tip-toeing. Catherine gave a little smile. “Works everytime~”

_ ::So what can I do for you?:: _

Catherine heaved a heavy sigh, remembering her reason for calling. “I really need to talk to you about Katie...is there a time we can meet?”

_ ::Sure...what about tomorrow? Bring Katie along. I’m sure she would love to meet the babies again.:: _

“Thank you Sweetie~ You’re a life-saver!” exclaimed the woman gratefully before hanging up before looking over forlornly at a picture of the family on the table next to her.

Catherine slowly traced her fingers over her kids when they were still kindergarten age and her husband’s image. “Oh Sam….you always knew how to handle Katie...what should I do?....” she asked softly.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Do I have to?” Katie grumbled a bit as Matt was the one who was told to wake Katie up and bring her downstairs so that she and her mom could go meet up with Shiro and Allura.”This isn’t fair using my godchildren against me.”

“Maybe not but at least you’d get to see them?” Matt pointed out.“And look I know last night was...rough but just give this a chance please? I really want this to work out for all of us, especially if we find dad and he’d want us to get along too!”

Katie let out a groan as she nodded, finally giving in.

“Alright alright stop guilt tripping me already Matt, tell mom I’ll be down in tears en minutes.” Katie said shooing her brother out who gave her a relieved look, hugging her before he left.

“Thank you Katie,” Matt said as Katie mumbled against his shirt.

“Yeah yeah lemme know if you find anything out at the station.” Katie grumbled as she hugged Matt back before pushing him away, “now go.”

Her brother laughed leaving the room as Katie got dressed, hoping that this get together would be better than the dinner last night. She got dressed and made sure she had everything, there was a slow beeping from her desk as if Rover was just waking up.

“Come on boy, can’t leave without you,” Katie said opening her bag and put the bot inside.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The car ride was awkward and quiet between the two women, as Catherine would try to say something but seem to rethink it and stayed quiet as katie wanted to say something as well but didn’t know how to start. They were both relieved when they saw the Lion House coming up as Catherine drove up the driveway and parked it near the garage. Katie practically flew out of the car just in time to see Allura opening the door with a sleeping Kichiro in her arms playing with her hair.

“Allura!” Katie said happily as she hugged the older woman who laughed and returned the hug with her free arm as the other held her son.

“Katie I’m glad you could make it, it’s nice to see you again as well Mrs. Holt.” Allura smiled as Catherine came up behind Katie.

“You can just call me Catherine,” Catherine replied smiling as she couldn’t help but look at how cute Kichiro looked with Allura’s hair color, “How’re the twins?”

“A lot of trial and error...mostly error,” Allura sighed as she looked at Kichiro who cooed and continued to chew on her hair. “Sweetie, look it's Katie.”

Kichiro visibly lit up when he saw Katie smiling down at him as he gave a happy squeal and flailed his little arms at the girl who picked him up and nuzzled his nose. 

“Hey there Chiro~” greeted Katie endearingly. 

“Shiro is in the nursery changing Jun,” informed Allura as Katie nodded and went inside with little Kichiro. 

The nursery wasn't too hard to find since it was right next to Allura and Shiro’s room. Katie walked in just in time to find Shiro strapping Jun into a fresh new diaper. 

Kichiro’s happy gurgling upon seeing his father and sister alerted Shiro to turn around. 

“Oh, Katie, you're here!” exclaimed a slightly frazzled looking Shiro. 

“Hey Shiro,” greeted Katie walking up and handed Kichiro to his father while she took over slipping Jun back into her onesie. 

“Hey Juni~” cooed the girl making her god-daughter smile at her as Katie picked her up and pecked her on the forehead, turning to to weary looking Shiro. “Wow Shiro… you look…”

“Yeah… I know…” said Shiro tiredly as he stifled a yawn.

“Damn how much sleep have you gotten?” Katie asked while Jun squealed babbling as she gripped Katie and trying to hug her.”You look pretty dead on your feet.”

Shiro yawned stretching out and Katie couldn’t help but wince when she heard several bones crack.” Thanks for the compliment but yeah Jun’s a screamer and Kichiro somehow keeps managing to climb out of the crib and getting into anything he can get his hands on.” Shiro sighed as he walked back with Katie to the main living room as Jun cuddled her daddy.

“Wow, so no sleep then?” Katie asked.

“Between them, the feeding, nap times and others it’s been a long couple of days,” Shiro sighed but smiled when he saw Allura, walking up to her and kissing her on the lips before kissing Catherine’s cheek, “hello kaasama.”

“Hello Shiro dear,” Catherine said hugging him.

“So you said you wanted to talk?” Shiro asked looking at her curiously.

“Ah...yes uhm…” Catherine said nervously but Allura could see she was glancing at Katie and smiled.

“Katie why don’t I show you the twin’s room? Maybe you can help me make a better baby monitor?” Allura suggested taking Jun from Shiro.

“Sure! It should be easy but I’d love to see what you did to their room Allura!” Katie replied smiling as the two girls headed upstairs with the babies leaving Shiro and Catherine alone.

“It’s hard having Katie back isn’t it?” Shiro asked, “ would you like me to make some tea?”

“Some tea would be nice and I’m sorry to drag you into this I’m just a bit...unnerved what Katie had to go through when she left...I may have overstepped my boundaries last night with Katie when she told me she stayed here with other boys.” Catherine replied.

Shiro patted her hand before he stood up to get the tea started, Catherine could faintly hear Katie talking excitedly with Allura and sighed. Once Shiro came back with two cups of tea he placed  them on the table and waited for Catherine to explain.

“You said something about overstepping your boundaries with Katie?” Shiro asked as Catherine grimaced nodding. “What exactly did you say?”

“Some very unpleasant things about the boys who stayed with my little Katie here. She got so very defensive. It started out when she talked about Keith and I asked her about it and then it just spiraled out of control when she said she stayed in the same room as a boy,” Catherine replied albeit regretfully. 

Shiro let out a long silent breath without the woman noticing. No wonder things got out of hand. It’s not like they could just tell her that Katie was hiding under a different identity and gender all that time. 

“I just…..I feel like I don’t even know her anymore….” continued Catherine sadly. “She’s just changed so much Shiro…”

Shiro reached across and patted the woman’s hand. “Well, she did had to handle things on her own for a couple of years….”

Catherine let out a despairing groan that pretty much signified that Shiro was not helping.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“It’s not that I don’t get what my mom is trying to do, but I’m not a little girl anymore…I’m 16!” sighed Katie as Kichiro climbed on her head and laughed excitedly while Jun sat on Allura’s lap sucking her thumb.

Katie gave her god-son an amused look before plucking him off her head and cradling him as Kichiro began sucking his thumb as well while Katie sighed. “And I can’t just tell her I spent the last few years literally battling an evil tyrannical empire and a group of psychos who almost killed us…she’ll probably ground me till I’m 50! Or worse! Take away my gadgets!”

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“This is all my fault...if only I had believed her she wouldn’t have ran away in the first place!” sobbed Catherine, blowing her nose into a tissue paper before taking a new sheet from the box Shiro was holding out for her. 

“Look, Kaa-san. Even though Katie looks like she doesn’t care she actually really does,” Shiro tried to explain. “She gets that headstrong attitude from you actually.”

Catherine just broke into a bawl causing Shiro to flinch, silently hoping Allura was having better luck on her end.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“But Allura what am I supposed to do!? I haven’t talked to her in three years and now I’m afraid anything I tell her she’s going to have a bad reaction to!” Katie groaned as she hugged Kichiro to her, “I mean I told you how she reacted when she found out about me staying with guys and Keith as a roommate!”

“I know it was a bit unorthodox, but we could say that there were no extra available dorms at the time of your enrollment,” Allura sighed,” but Katie I know it’s difficult but can you think of anything you and your mom can share as a neutral ground?”

“I dunno, Matt suggested mom make peanut butter cookies and it felt fine when I stole the spoon from Matt and licked it,” Katie replied frowning, “but I can’t rely on that all the time...and it’s so awkward spending time with her after last night we both are afraid to say anything! I really do want to talk to mom normally again but...I don’t want her to hate my friends that I’ve made during our separation...or hate me for leaving...”

Allura scooted over until she was sitting next to Katie as the twins were cooing and babbling at each other as if they were talking.

“Oh Katie she couldn’t hate you, you know your mom loves you dearly.” Allura sighed,” We’ll think of something Katie, now come on I’m sure there are still somethings you and she could do together.”

“Like what? I don’t feel comfortable wearing the same stuff I did back then, my hair is still short so I don’t know…” Kaite whined.

“Why not show her what you’ve been up to? I mean you’re the youngest person to be enrolled in college that has to be somewhere to start. You have to admit you’ve come a long way with your Rover bots.”

“I guess? But would she even like that?” Katie asked.

“You never know unless you try, slowly bring your mother up to date to what you’ve been doing excluding certain things of course. “ Allura said, picking up Kichiro. “Come on and we can introduce her more to her god-grandchildren.”

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When they got downstairs both women looked at Shiro who was silently panicking as Catherine was still crying.

“Takashi I love you but if you suck this much at comforting women I worry when you have to comfort our daughter.” Allura teased as she moved over and sat next to Catherine who glanced up at her sniffling. She saw Katie standing awkwardly to the side not sure what to do so she took a seat across from her mom next to Shiro. 

“If she’s anything like her mother, she’ll pull through~” Shiro teased earning a smirk from Allura who tweaked his nose. 

“Good to know you still can at least know how to get on my good side~”

Katie gave a small cough, breaking the couple out of their little flirty bit as Jun giggled while Kichiro began gumming on Allura’s hair again.

Allura cleared her throat, composing herself. “Catherine! You remember little Jun and Kichiro?”

Catherine broke into a small smile when Katie held out Jun to her as the baby girl let out a happy squeal, her blue eyes sparkling. 

“Hello cuties…” Catherine said as she took Jun from Katie and cuddled the little baby girl who giggled reaching out for Catherine’s light caramel colored hair that tickled her face, “They’re gorgeous babies...must be pretty active.”

“Oh yes...very active...especially Kichiro he’s like a mini escape artist aren’t you sweetie?” Allura cooed as Kichiro blinked his brown eyes back at Allura making the woman giggled as she tickled his stomach.

“You know...technically since Katie is their god-mother they’re kinda your grandchildren or rather god-grandkids,” Shiro said chuckling making Catherine blink surprised as she looked at Katie who suddenly turned red.

“Katie’s their god-mother?” Catherine asked as Allura nodded.

“Yes Katie has been a wonderful help around the Lion house, she helped me when I found out I was pregnant going above and beyond to help protect the school but also the Lion house,” Allura said fondly, “she’s very smart even made a whole new security system for the school.”

“Not only that she’s very creative,” Shiro added smiling at the girl who was turning redder at the praise, “give her an hour and she can make something that you’d only dream of, she’s really expanded her horizons being here.”

“I...I...it’s thanks to everyone in the Lion house,” Katie said quietly, making the three adults look at her as Katie stared at the ground, “at the time, I was mostly focused on my work on finding dad and kept to myself. Sure I talked with Hunk and Lance but we didn’t really spend that much time together at least until Keith came…”

“Keith he’s more than just a roommate?” Catherine asked cautiously, not wanting a repeating incident. “You really care about him?”

“Maybe at a time I did but...we’ve talked...and I’m happy that he’s my best friend,” Katie said smiling so honestly and happily, “Keith has brought everyone here closer and I really don’t know where I’d be if he wasn’t my roommate. I really meant it when he’s a really really good person mom...all of them are.”

“I have a few favorite photos here,” Allura said as she got up and picked up a few frames that was hanging on the wall, “these was taken after they all graduated here.”

Catherine took the photo.

In the first photo she could see Katie squished in the middle of the group but she was in the arms of an indigo eyed asian teen laughing  as she had one of her arms wrapped around his neck and the other making a peace sign, the asian himself laughing as well as he held onto Katie so she would be in the camera shot, on her right side was a robust looking young man grinning brightly his arm thrown around Katie’s neck making double peace signs while finally on the asian’s left side a tall tanned young man had his arm thrown around the asian’s neck his face pressed close to the other’s as he made a peace sign with his other hand.

The second photo Catherine saw she couldn’t help but laugh when the tanned man on the asian’s left side turned the asian’s head and kissed him fully on the lips, the poor asian was burning red while Katie was making a gagging face still in his arms and the other young man looked exasperated but still had a large grin on his face amused.

The third had the group of boys, holding Katie on their shoulders, a huge smile appearing on her face. 

Catherine looked to Katie who bashfully looked at her feet before glancing at her mother. 

“All this time… you really had good people looking out for you… doing such amazing things,” Catherine said in a soft proud voice before looking regretful again. “And… where was I?”

Katie held her mother's hand and squeezed it." Mom...please stop beating yourself up over this….. I don't hate you for what happened years ago... But please understand, I’m not a little girl anymore…. I have my own life now….”

“I know….” said Catherine sadly looking at her daughter."I just wished I was a part of it…”

Katie breath hitched in her throat as her eyes began to tear up as well. The girl’s grip tightened a bit.

“You still can you know….” she said softly with a teary smile. 

“But after last night…” Catherine said scared looking at Katie who by now moved from her seat and over to her mother and hugged her tightly, “I’m sorry Katie, I didn’t mean to jump to conclusions about your friends, I take back what I said.”

“You’d really love them mom really,” Katie said as she buried her face against her mother’s side, feeling the love and protection she would get from her before she left, “Hunk can show you so many ways to cook food, Keith is pretty handy and is good at magic and Lance is pretty funny and can make you laugh if you let him tell a decent joke.”

“They sound wonderful, next time you all get together I’d like to meet them.” Catherine said wrapping her arms around Katie who smiled brilliantly back at her.

“Sure thing mom, they’d really like to meet you too.” Katie said and looked over to Allura and Shiro who had both of their children in their arms,” thank you Shiro, thank you Allura for helping us.”

“Oh Katie it’s not problem at all we’re happy we can help,” Allura said, “I’m glad that you and your mother are repairing your relationship so beautifully. Please stop by anytime!”

“We’ll probably take you up on that offer, so tell me more about these boys of yours?” Catherine asked looking at Shiro and Allura, “I’d like to know more about the young men who took care of Katie.”

“We have plenty of stories to tell,” Shiro chuckled as Kichiro huffed as he was trying to climb up Shiro’s muscular arms using his dad like a jungle gym, “Kichiro come here you little  Monkey~!

Kichiro just squealed and laughed as Shiro was trying to grab his son climbing all over him and barely managing to grab him while the women all laughed, finally free of all the tension.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Next Chapter**  
>  “Do you...do you think Lance is bored with me?” Keith asked quietly making Matt choke on his drink and Katie doing a spit take at Shiro’s face.
> 
> “ **What!? Okay what the hell did Lance do Keith just say the word and I'll-** ” Katie raged before Shiro and Matt grabbed the girl before she could go on a rampage.


	3. Doin' it Right

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a year a part since Keith and Lance graduated they finally get some time off to spend some much needed make-up time....possibly

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well here's what me and Liddy couldn't wait to write so we had fun with this, so enjoy~ Mind you this is where mostly the mature rating comes from!

**A year had passed since the entire debacle with Wine and her faction. Everyone had since graduated and moved on with their lives.**

**Hunk decided to open a restaurant with his father and moved in with Shay to the apartment above it thanks to Balmera Corp as an investor with Rax leading the company. He also helps Rax by developing new equipment to safely mine and make the work safer for the employees, he's handling both the restaurant and assisting Rax well.**

**Allura and Rax became business partners, with Balmera Corp also functioning as sponsor for the school and providing internships for the student graduates.**

**Speaking of Allura, on top of running a new partnership, she’s currently busy with a new job with her other new partner; Parenthood.**

**Yup, the new happy couple are proud parents to their bouncing, baby fraternal twins, Kichiro and Jun Altea-Shirogane, living happily altogether at the Lion House. If you are wondering about the school, don’t worry about it, the whole place is in good hands with Coran as acting Headmaster.**

**Pidge finally went home  and made amends with her mother and Matt. She still hasn’t given up looking for her father but this time she has her brother to help out. Although, it looks like Green Lion won’t be making an appearance for quite a long time.**

**As for Keith, well,  Keith went back to Japan to become his brother’s stage engineer as he had planned since the beginning.  The Magic Kuroba family have been taking the world by storm!**

**Boy, I miss Keith….**

**What? Of course it’s me, Lance! Who else would be narrating?**

**Eh, the writer girls are taking a break, besides, this is my story to tell**

**EHEM! Anyways, as for me, I’ve been hard at work at the Police Academy. I haven’t been on any Shadow KiD squad missions though. That guy has been taking his act on the road. He and Kaito Kid have been making appearances all over the world stealing Gems left and right…...and returning them for some odd reason as usual.**

**Of course, Mr. Rich-Fancy-Pants Det.Hakuba has been hot on their trail like a Doberman along with official Detective Shinichi Kudo too.**

**I can’t believe those guys get to go official straight outta College! UGH! So not fair!!**

**_*Door Slams Open revealing Writers*_ **

_Liddy: Lance, what are you doing?_

_NIghty: We leave for a smoothie break for just 20 mins and this-!_ _  
_

**Aw, come on ladies! This is my chapter after all!** **  
**

_*Nighty and Liddy just glance at each other with quirked eyebrows and deadpanned looks*_

**Pleeeeeeeaaase~? Can’t I have this one? *Makes puppy eyes***

_*Liddy and Nighty exchanged looks and sighs defeatedly.*_

_Nighty: Ok, fine! We’ll let it slide just this once,_

_Liddy: *Pokes Lance in the nose and smiles.*  Just be lucky we think you’re cute~ Have fun~_

_Nighty: Buh-Bye~_

***Both girls twiddled their fingers and left Lance to his devices.***

**Well….*rubs nose* uh…. Lets just….get on with chapter….* whips out remote and presses button as movie plays***

**3……..**

**2…….**

**1…….**

**\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**“** Finally! We get the week off!” Lance celebrated to himself as soon as he arrived home.

Ever since Shiro tied the knot with Allura, the police chief had long since moved out of his place and settled down at the Lion House, which Allura has ceased using as a dorm house.

After the place was fixed up since the whole assault with the crazy bionic doctor, Lance became Matt’s new housemate while he was attending the Academy for training.

The house was closer to the Police Academy and it was about time he moved out anyway. He was lucky Matt didn't mind having another roommate as long as he didn't touch anything in the basement. Before he entered he pulled his phone out and checked for any new messages from Keith.

Nothing.

“Guess he really must be busy, I mean his brother is a well-known magician now, so they probably have a ton of bookings,” Lance sighed as the last message he received from Keith was a few days ago. Pouting he sent a quick text to his boyfriend.

**_::Missing you Keith, hope we can chat soon it's been a while. <3 ::_ **

He sighed unlocking the front door walking into the living room. He ate a quick snack and after peeking in the fridge figured out what to make for dinner. He stretched a bit hearing his bones crack as Lance decided to head upstairs and rest, the day had been one of the hard ones and he was exhausted.

His door creaked a little as Lance entered the dark room. Lance sighed as he flipped on the lights, brightness filling the room. At that moment Lance froze. He felt a stare on him. Lance glanced about the room, attempting to behave normally while closing the door behind him cautiously.

Lance walked in, still keeping vigil. Boy, he really hoped Shadow wasn’t back in town. Lance hadn’t seen him since that one night. Granted, he really owed Shadow for various reasons but the fact Shadow was still in love him still made Lance a little uncomfortable.

All of a sudden, Lance felt a pair of arms snake around his neck as warm body pressed against his back.

 _“Laaaance~”_ a whispered voice sang into his ear making blood rush to Lance’s face.

A sudden playful nip on his earlobe jolted Lance back to focus as he grabbed the body hanging on to him and forcefully threw him over his shoulder on to the bed, before jumping on the person, pinning their arms to the side of their head.

“So you finally show up again Shadooooo…..” Lance was about to threaten when he finally got a good look at his assailant, causing his voice to trail off. “Keith?”

Keith gave his boyfriend a bemused smile at his shocked expression. “I missed you too Lance~ Though this is awfully aggressive of you~”

Lance was still at a loss for words as he slowly released his grip. Instead, he pulled Keith into a sit up as he began smooshing  Keith’s face as if to make sure he was real and not some mask by Shadow.

“Lance?” called Keith a little weirded out by the face smooshing when he saw Lance’s gaping mouth slowly curl up into a smile as he felt his face suddenly grabbed in between Lance’s large hands and was pulled in for a deep kiss.

“Mmmph?! Mmmm~….” went Keith, his eyes popping wide open at the surprise gesture before relaxing into the kiss.

Lance exhaled heavily through his nostrils as he pulled Keith closer before finally breaking the kiss with a loud pop.

“Keith…” breathed Lance happily, still grasping Keith’s face while running his hands through his silky, black locks before pulling him into a tight hug.

Keith couldn't help but laugh as he wrapped his own arms around Lance holding him close. He shivered a bit when he felt Lance’s nimble fingers going through his hair and then trail down until he had his hands on the sides of his hips, practically pulling Keith into his lap as Keith buried his face into the crook of Lance’s neck.

“I'm really here Lance,” Keith said sighing happily as he moved back and brushed his lips against the other boy’s cheek, he couldn't help but smile when Lance’s grin got bigger and laughed when Lance just started to pepper kisses all over his face.

“What are you doing here!? Not that I'm complaining but you're here!” Lance said through the kisses and Keith trying to stop him so he could speak properly,” I've missed you so much it's been ages since you texted meeee!”

“It's been a few days and I was using those days to surprise you here you dork.” Keith said finally grabbing Lance’s face and pushing him back a bit. “Kaito finally got a break from his shows wanted to spend time with dating Shinichi so I decided to see **my** boyfriend whom I haven't seen physically in a year.”

“How long you gonna be here?” Lance asked his face hurting from grinning so much as he pressed Keith against him sighing happily being able to hold him,” never knew how much I missed a simple hug with you being gone.”

“About a week or more depending when Kaito decides to do his shows,” Keith replied. "So we can have lots of time to make up for the year we’ve been separated.”

Lance didn't need anymore encouragement from that and leaned over to kiss Keith again on the lips as he was pushing the other down until they both were pressed against each other. Lance kissed Keith deeply again that had the darker haired Asian underneath him groan as his hands reached up to brush through Lance’s short hair. He could feel Lance’s own hands not being idle as he felt the other’s hands slip under his shirt and caress his sides.

“Missed you so much Keith,” Lance murmured as he kissed a trail from Keith's lips to his check and down until he was nibbling on the other’s neck, his hands roaming Keith’s body feeling how much if had developed since going back to Japan.

“Lance~....” sighed Keith, his fingers tracing Lance’s strong back as he allowed Lance to ravish him.

Keith shuddered in pleasure. He had waited so long to be back with Lance again, even if it was  only for a week. Keith nuzzled Lance’s cheek and waited.

“Lance?” called Keith upon realizing that Lance had stopped. “Laaance?”

A light snoring in his ear caused Keith to deadpan as he stroked the back of Lance’s head, slowly easing himself from under his lover.

“Seriously….?” sighed Keith, shaking his head, making his way to turn off the lights and kicking off his shoes and removed Lance’s before snuggling down with his warm body.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lance awoke with a start the next morning as he looked down at his side. Keith was still snuggled next to him in deep sleep.

Memories of last night flooded into his head instantaneously as Lance buckled down in shame.

“I am such an idiot……..” he muttered to himself.

"Way to go Lance… your lover who you’ve not even seen over a year is finally in bed with you and you **_fall asleep….”_ ** he chided himself.

At that moment, Keith stirred, making Lance freeze as Keith slowly sat up in bed, his covers slipping off.

Lance’s eyes bulged to see Keith sitting next to him in full glory as he yawned and rubbed his eyes cutely.

“Mornin’ Lance~” Keith yawned while Lance went red all over, feeling something rise from below.

Lance was about to reach out and take Keith then and there but he quickly stopped.

 _‘No! You left him hanging last night! He’s probably mad at you!’_ Lance scolded himself mentally before pulling back and giving Keith a small smile.

“M- _morning!”_ he uncharacteristically squeaked trying to divert his eyes.

Keith raised an eyebrow at the squeaking but he did look amused at how he saw how red Lance’s face was. He reached over wrapping his arm around Lance’s neck as he pulled his lover closer to kiss him.

He could feel Lance stiffen even more as he kissed Lance softly and moved his arms around to the other’s shoulder practically hugging him.

 _‘Shitshitshitshitshit!! He feels good and soft!? But he still has his muscles and what the hell calm down already holy fuck!!’_ Were mostly what Lance was thinking as he was almost afraid to touch Keith the way he was and take advantage of him.

Once Keith pulled away he tilted his head adorably and poked Lance’s nose. “You okay Lance?”

“Fine!! Perfectly fine! The finest I've been in a while!” He managed to get out. “But wh-why are you naked!? Didn't you have clothes on last night!?”

Keith hummed as he rested his head against Lance’s shoulder and played with Lance’s shirt a bit. “Mmm it got a bit warm for me so I had to do something, is that a problem?” Keith replied looking up at Lance innocently.

Lance held his breath and shook his head vigorously.

Suddenly, Lance shot out of bed, making Keith fall over. “Eh… I gotta go… take care of something…” said Lance quickly zooming into the bathroom and slamming the door behind him.

Lance leaned against the bathroom door, clutching his chest, his heart beating a mile a minute while Junior was standing tall and proud.

Lance buried his face in his hands.

_‘Hnnnngggg….. Do you even realize what you're doing to me Keith?!’_

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lance came down a **_looooong_ ** while later just in time to catch Matt making a huge plate of bacon, eggs and toast as he served it on the table where Keith was sitting as well.

As he moved closer he could see that Keith was poking his eggs and looked like he was pouting while Matt was laughing patting the dark haired man’s head and was talking to him softly while Keith looked like he was sighing. He had to stop himself from getting problems again as Keith was dressed thankfully, but he just had on a black shirt and red shorts….very short red shorts that barely went mid-thigh.

He got closer as the two continued talking, neither taking notice of him.

“Really!? Nothing!?” Matt laughed while Keith groaned and nodded,” and Allura as the one to tell you…”

“Yes and yes, I mean it looked like it was working but then...” Keith whined.

“There there it'll be alright. Morning Lance had to do your morning routine?” Matt tied as Keith sat back up and looked at his boyfriend who walked over and kissed Keith’s cheek before sitting next to him and trying very very hard not to stare at Keith.

“Among other things, what we're you guys talking about? Lance said grabbing some food for himself looking at the two curiously.

“Just something Allura told me when I was catching up with her and the others before I came here,” Keith replied. “So Matt told me you have the week off, had any plans?”

“Not really but I probably will now that you're here Keith,” Lance replied grinning.

“Just make sure if you decide to have fun here try to keep it to your room,” Matt teased. “And use a condom~”

“Matt!” squeaked Lance, glowing red in embarrassment while Keith flushed, his hair poofing up while Matt just gave them a shit eating grin.

At that moment, the group was alerted by the doorbell.

“I’ll get it,” offered Keith, getting up to open the door, wondering who could be visiting them so early.

“ **_REEEEEEEEEEEEEENNN~~~~~!!!!!!!!!”_ ** screamed a familiar voice in excitement as Keith got tackled backwards into the hall by a familiar force.

“Ooof!!!" went Keith landing on his back.

“Hi~” grinned the face of an old college mate.

“Bayleaf?!”

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“We apologize.” Sage and Cilantro said as they held their sister in their arms who was pouting as she wanted to hug Keith again who was in Lance’s arms. Lance grumbled as he held his boyfriend tightly as Keith while happy to see Bayleaf would prefer seeing her again without the tackling him again.

“So why are you guys here not that it's not nice to see you but I...we kinda were making plans?” Keith said looking at the triplets.

“Aww! But I wanted to see you again Ren! Maybe you could join in on the annual battle between the new club members and the Altea Alumni!” Bayleaf whined.

“That was this week? Already?” Lance asked surprised.

“Yeah we were checking in to see if you wanted to join us this year since you finished your basic training and are in the advance classes aren't you?” Sage asked. "And Keith was technically a backup member so he could join too if you guys wanted.”

“Why not go? It's been a while and it's not like you two had plans, or at least solid plan~” Matt said while Keith glowered at him because Matt knew exactly what plans Keith was thinking of while Lance looked like he was considering.

“I am kinda curious how the newbies are, and we do need to keep our reputation of our club. What do you say Keith? Catch up with the others and then we can hit the town for lunch?” Lance asked.

Keith eagerly nodded."Let's do it.”

“YAHTZEE!!!!” cheered Bayleaf jumping up excitedly, freeing her arms as she hooked her brothers’ necks and hugged them tightly.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spectators cheered excitedly as they gathered around the newly installed survival arena at the school as Coran appeared on the big screen.

_::Welcome one and all to the Altea University annual Survival Games Exhibition match! The one day of the year where we will pit all our new fresh blood members against our established Alumni!!!! I am Acting Headmaster Coran and I will be here as your announcer delivering the live play by play along with one of our Alumni and Altea U’s main financial sponsor, CEO of Balmera Corp. Rax Balmera!!!::_

The camera panned over to Rax who waved out to crowd from the screen.

:: _It’s nice to be back seeing these games! It’s only been a year but so much has changed and improved! It’s great being here and actually being in the announcer box rather than in the audience this time around!::_

_::Yes yes always nice to have a bird’s eye view, well we know our new Survival Team that’s in our school but let’s introduce the Alumni we have this year! We have the Ramsey triplets Sage, Cilantro and Bayleaf who is still a menace even though a year has passed.  We also got their silent sniper Robin and her sharpshooter boyfriend Bart!::_

_::Quite right! Also we can’t forget the others! As a special treat the triplets managed to find two alumni that have been quite busy for the past year, one of them is the previous captain of the survival club Lance McClain aaannnndd another surprise guest is Altea’s previous school Idol as rumors went by Keith Kuroba!::_

The arena suddenly exploded in large shouts of disbelief and cheers, when they heard that Keith Kuroba was going to be participating, apparently even a year later the rumors and what he did in school still lasted and made an impression to this day.

 _::Keith you jerk!!::_ Rax laughed over in the announcer’s box _:: Shay told me there was going to be a special guest but she never said it was you!::_

Keith went red as he buried his face into Lance’s back embarrassed when Coran announced him like that the rest of the the team laughing amused.

“Even now you can’t escape your idol title,” Bart laughed looking at his friend who groaned while Robin just gave a silent thumbs up.

Keith rolled his eyes as he tied up his grown out hair into a low ponytail before tightening his glove straps and laces before making sure his gun was in working condition and loading it.

Lance twirled his Air glocks before slipping them into their holsters while he picked his air rifle. “So what’s the plan?”

Bart, Robin and the Ramsey Triplets all exchanged looks with each other.

Bayleaf twiddled her thumbs with a sheepish grin. “Weeeell~ We were kinda hoping…. **_you_ ** would be our Team Captain again… for old time’s sake~?”

Lance face palmed himself. “You couldn’t tell me this back at the house?”

“Yeah Bayleaf…”  agreed the Ramsey brothers, eyeballing their sister.

“Eh-heh…” laughed Bayleaf weakly. “Oopsie?”

Lance and Keith exchanged glances and shook their heads.

“Well, no matter, let’s just show these freshies why we were the best team ever!” declared Lance, stepping up to the task. “You guys know what to do! Sage! Cilantro!”

“Flank em’!” answered the two.

“Bayleaf! Keith!”

“Go Wild!” cheered the girl holding up her rifles.

“And Knock em’ down!” finished Keith, fist bumping Bayleaf.

"Bart! Robin!”

“Cover fire!” answered Bart as he and Robin saluted.

“Let's kick some ass!” exclaimed Robin suddenly causing everyone except Bart to stumble as they whipped their heads at the sniper with shocked expressions who just smiled and gave them a peace sign.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 _::Ooooohh and that freshman is going to feel that one tomorrow as Bayleaf knocks him right into one of the barriers!::_ Coran announced as Bayleaf was grinning almost madly before she cackles and runs off, _::always the wildcard with her,::_

 _::And with another quickly snipe another one is taken out from Robin, they're putting up a decent fight but against the Alumni who also happens to be the champions it's going to be hard to keep up.::_ Rax added whistling as the new team was scrambling to cover positions and keep up.

“Sage! Cilantro! Keith! Guerillas tactics! Bayleaf keep them busy!” Lance shouted as the three he called were rushing forward as He, Robin and Bart covered.

 _::Can't forget captain Lance! Who lead his team to plenty of victories during his stay here at the school!::_ Coran grinned. :: _Even now they're taking no prisoners and never easy on the opponents! ::_

Keith, and the Ramsey boys weaved about the obstacles ricocheting their shots off the various surfaces, taking out the snipers with a pinball effect.

 _::There it is, Everyone!!! The infamous Pinball Killshot that has led the team to victory many times with its unpredictable movements and multiple hits!!!::_ exclaimed Rax excitedly grabbing his mic and jumping up from his seat.

The crowds cheered wildly.

Despite having the advantage in numbers, Team Fresh Blood was losing players left and right as the Alumni Dream Team made quick work of them.

“Ren! Old Faithful!” called Bayleaf, rushing towards Keith.

Keith nodded as he braced himself and interlocked his fingers. Bayleaf came sailing through the air as her foot connected with Keith’s hands. With a strong hoist, Keith flung Bayleaf vertically into the air, the girl whooping excitedly.

Bayleaf smirked as she whipped out her rifles and let it rain pellets on the oncoming squad.

“Merry X’mas ya filthy animals!!!!” cackled Bayleaf in a Brooklyn accent, curling her body and somersaulted to ground, landing cleanly in Keith’s arms, blowing the nozzles. “And a Happy New Year!!”

“Yahtzee," finished Keith, exchanging smiles with the cheeky Bayleaf.

 _:: Also the return of the unorthodox duo of Keith and Bayleaf! With Bayleaf’s energy and random ideas only Keith would be able to accommodate her and go through with the plan pulling them off flawlessly! That's the Alumni School Idol for you!::_ Coran laughed as Bayleaf jumped out of Keith’s arms while Keith facepalmed.

“Coran I swear knock off the idol stuff!” Keith shouted.

 _::Sorry my dear boy but can’t take back a reputation you built for yourself during here!::_ Coran laughed, :: _Just accept the fact that'll be your title here!::_

Keith rolled his eyes shaking his head while Bayleaf giggled and slung an arm around the boy’s shoulders grinning as she cocked her gun.

“It's not that bad a title besides from your reputation a lot of people and students still admire your handsome ass Ren~” Bayleaf grinned and cheekily kissed Keith’s cheek even managing to squeeze his ass making the Asian jump in surprise.

“ **Hey! Hands off Bayleaf Ramsey!! HE’S MINE!”** Lance hissed possessively popping out from behind his barrier waving a gun at her while Bart was holding him back from actually shooting her.

“Take it out on the other team! Not our own!” yelled Bart, pushing him towards the fray.

Lance let out a huge battle cry as he dived in guns a blazing, much to the horror of the freshmen.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 _:: And a clear obliteration of team Fresh Blood thanks to the wild fury of the Alumni Captain! What a show! What a show!::_ cheered Coran as the whole arena applauded excitedly while the other team lay on the ground groaning.

Bayleaf cheered before diving behind Keith for cover as Lance gave her the stink eye while Keith just laughed as he walked ahead and helped one of the members stand.

“You guys did a pretty good job holding your own,” complemented Keith before looking at the girl’s minigun and whistled. “I’m impressed. Not many girls your size can wield such a large gun as easily as you did.”

The girl removed her goggles and blushed. “Th-thank you….since I’m so short, my strength is my only saving grace…”

“You’ll do great here~” encouraged Keith as the girl looked up at him with twinkling eyes.

Suddenly Lance appeared and pulled Keith away, hissing like an angry cat.

“Lance...calm down she's not Bayleaf,” Keith said gently prying Lance’s arms off of him looking amused. “Besides you did kinda tore into them unnecessarily. ”

“I couldn't hit Bayleaf so I had to hit something,” Lance grumbled but calmed down a bit when Keith leaned over and kissed him gently on the lips,”.....fine I'll ease up…”

“Thank you Lance,” his boyfriend replied as Keith smiled as he walked back to the newbies as more of them got up and surrounded Keith talking to him eagerly to get to know more about him.

“Did you really jump out of the third story window!?”

“Is it true you're really **the** Kaito Kuroba’s brother!?”

“Are the rumors true that you had **_all_** the clubs after you to join!?”

“The theater club has pictures of you in a dress!? Was that really you!?”

“How were you able to throw your teammate **that high** so easily!?”

More and more of the fresh blood surrounded the Asian boy and unlike before when he didn't do too well in crowds he was talking to the freshmen easily, even if some of the questions he wished they wouldn't ask. Like the dress.

“So boss man seems like good timing both you and Keith are here,” Bart said leaning against Robin as the girl rolled her eyes. “How's it going finally having him?”

“I'm more surprised about how possessive you were,” Cilantro chuckled.” I mean I knew you've been protective of him since whatever happened during school with both of you, I doubt any of the freshmen could get Keith's attention.”

“But he’s sure getting **their** attention~” teased Sage, folding  his arms when suddenly Sage and Cilantro jumped in pain as Bayleaf pinched their sides.

“Knock it off you guys! Lance hasn’t seen his one true love in like forever! Quit messing with my OTP!” scolded Bayleaf waving her arms.

Lance actually looked touched to see Bayleaf of all people standing up for him. “Aww, Bayleaf ~ You actually get me, thank you~”

“Hey, I’ve been shipping you guys since the beginning of time! I’d be damned if you guys don’t start making fires after all this time!!!” declared Bayleaf, cocking her rifles and charging forward.

**_“BANZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIII…………….!!!!!!!!!!!”_ **

Everybody screamed as they saw Bayleaf come charging at them firing warning shots, making them scatter.

“GO! GO!!” commanded the girl over her shoulder as Lance gave her a grateful look as he swooped in and pulled Keith away whilst everyone else was distracted by the chaos.

 _::RABID BAYLEAF!!! RABID BAYLEAF!!! SOMEONE CATCH HER!!!::_ cried Rax while Coran covered his eyes as the remaining Alumni team quickly rushed forward.

 **_“KLANCE FOREVEEEEEERRRR!!!!!!”_ ** cackled Bayleaf maniacally from the top of one of the barrell piles firing her guns into the air.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“That wasn't really necessary you know and it's not fair to the freshmen or the others to set Bayleaf on them,” Keith sighed as he ate a burger from Laila’s diner since he hadn't had one for a year.” Mmmmm so good~”

Lance nearly choked on his burger forgetting how Keith was when he first ate one of Laila’s amazing burgers and oh boy the sounds he still made even now a year later. He was thankful they were in a private booth with the table over him to cover any ‘sudden appearances’.

“Yeah well with all of them hounding you it would be forever before we were able to leave and I promised you lunch,” Lance said munching in some of his own fries.“And we still needed to make plans.”

Keith shrugged,” I really don't mind since I wanted to catch up with you Lance~.”

Lance jumped a little in his seat as he felt something brush up against his ankle. He didn’t have to look under the table to know it was Keith’s foot.

Lance nervously ate his burger as he glanced at Keith who appeared to not have noticed anything while he enjoyed his burger.

The Cuban swallowed, slowly inching his ankle away,but somehow Keith’s foot kept finding his. Lance’s back was sweating as he tried really hard to dodge Keith’s feet until he finally crossed his legs in his seat. He can’t afford to touch Keith right now, not with the sounds he was making. Ooooh he wanted Keith so badly!

“So how’re y’all doing today?” asked Laila suddenly showing up, scaring the two out of their skins.

“Laila~!” exclaimed Keith happily.

“Bless mah soul~! Keith Kuroba~ As I live and breathe~! How’ve ya been Sugarcube~?”

“I’ve been great! You’re looking as radiant as ever~ and Your burgers are still awesome as always!” replied Keith, standing up and giving the woman a hug.

Laila flushed and chuckled. “Oh shucks you~ Flatterer~”

“Well I had to pick something up from my brother,” Keith laughed as the women hugged him tightly back, almost smothering him but he had missed the woman,” no one makes a burger like you Laila seriously.”

“Aint you just full of sweetness today!” She giggled before she said hi to Lance and pulled Keith closer whispering into his ear,”so how's it been with the two of ya eh?”

She was surprised when Keith grumbled a bit and looked at Lance through the corner of his eye before looking back at Laila, she understood immediately and ruffled his hair.”Aww c’mere sweetie let Laila give you some advice when she was goin’ after her hubby.”

Keith listened, though he was wishing that Lance would just get the hint already.

Lance was nibbling in his burger, managing to calm himself down and glanced at Laila catching up to Keith, he was glad that Laila was happy to see Keith. He inwardly groaned wanting to slam him head against the table, but if this was just the first full day of Keith being with him for a **_week_ ** he had no idea how much longer he was going to be able to stop himself from grabbing Keith!?

 _‘Gotta stay strong Lance...you can survive this…’_ Lance told himself, not noticing the sneaky whisper and chuckle from Laila while Keith nodded.

“Just sit tight Darlins~ I’ll be right back~” said Laila with a wink as she jauntily  walked away.

“So what were you two talking about?” Lance asked as Keith sat down again.

“Oh well you know, this and that,” said Keith evasively while clearing his throat and finishing the last of his burger. “So, where should we go tomorrow?”

Lance thought a bit when a thought struck him. “Oh Hey, how about we visit Allura and Shiro? The twins are already starting to walk and Pidge would be super excited to see you again~”

Keith secretly faulted  a bit in disappointment but still smiled anyway.

“Sure, I have been wondering how Jun and Kichiro have been doing with keeping Allura and Shiro up,” Keith chuckled as they were both just sitting in the booth waiting for Laila to come back, Keith was hoping that Laila’s plan would give Lance a hint. He sipped his drink contemplating as he looked at Lance as his boyfriend was still looking nervous with his legs folded in front of him.

 _‘Damn would’ve thought doing that would’ve worked..’_ Keith sighed.

“You okay Keith?” Lance asked looking at the dark haired man across from him as he drank some of his milkshake, “thinking about the others?”

“More or less,” Keith replied shrugging as Laila practically came dancing back with a single plate with a nice large slice of pineapple cake with a nice heaping scoop of ice cream.

“Enjoy boys~ it’s on the house.” Laila grinned as she left a single spoon and went back to the front as the lunch rush was starting to come in.

“Laila wait you couldn’t have given us two plates!?” Lance said looking between the owner and the pie.

“I think she gave us an extra large slice so I don’t think we need two plates,” Keith said smiling as he picked up the only spoon and scooped some of the pie and ice cream onto it, holding the spoon out for Lance to eat. “We might as well enjoy it before the ice cream melts Lance.”

Lance’s face burned as Keith pressed the spoon to his lips. That, and puppy dog pout Keith was giving him just made Lance weak.

Lance’s lips parted as Keith fed him the ice cream and cake. Laila giggled in amusement.

“Oh you two are just adorable~ I just wanna adopt both of you~!” cooed Laila endearingly."Well I gotta get back to work~ Enjoy~”

With that, Laila waltzed off, giving Keith an encouraging wink.

Lance slowly savored the sweets before swallowing. “Um...aren’t you gonna have some Keith?”

“Maybe~” sighed Keith before giving Lance a teasing grin. “But I’m content just watching you eat~”

“What? No, you gotta try some of this! I can’t have it all to myself!”

“Well we only have **one** spoon~”

Lance held his breath as he took the spoon and nervously scooped some of the dessert and held it out to Keith. The Asian smirked as he took the spoon into his mouth, slowly sucking on it while looking Lance square in the eye. Lance felt the all too familiar twitch in his pants as he crossed his legs tighter. He wanted to look away, but Lance couldn’t tear his eyes away from the fascinating lavender orbs staring at him.

Keith pulled himself away from the spoon, as he slowly licked the cream off his lips, never once breaking eye contact.

“Mmm~ That’s pretty good stuff~”

Lance swallowed hard. It was getting very uncomfortable to keep sitting the way he was.

“Are you hungry Lance? There’s still a lot of pie left.” Keith said as he smiled back to Lance who only seemed to swallow harder as Keith took the spoon from his limp fingers and scooped up some of the pie holdin it out to him to take, “we don't want to upset Laila, we should finish this don’t you think?”

“Yeah...sure wouldn’t want to do that to Laila.” Lance said as he tried to advert his eyes but he had to keep his head up in order to eat the pie that Keith had scooped up, he tried shifting his sitting position a bit to try and get more comfortable. It failed, in fact moving just seemed to make things worse.

Lance felt his whole body go warm and felt he was a hair’s breadth away from just grabbing Keith because each time that he would feed the asian boy he seemed to like making more of a show when he took the spoon into his mouth! The images that he was getting just watching his boyfriend was driving him crazy. He could swear all the blood was heading south each time Keith ate his bites of pie the only thing he hadn’t done was make noises which was his saving grace as there were still plenty of people in the diner.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Later that night back at home, Lance sat in the  bathroom taking a cold shower feeling emotionally drained.

Never had Lance been so stressed out over a pastry. It was only a miracle Lance had managed to finish eating the pie with Keith without soiling himself.

He didn't even want to get started on the drive home.

 _‘This week is gonna kill me… ..’_ he groaned in despair.

Lance wanted nothing more than to ravish Keith but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Not while Keith was probably still mad at him.

He let out a sigh as he leaned his head against the mirror  trying to will more strength into him.

“I wish Keith wasn't mad at me would make this week so much easier to deal with!” Lance whined to himself as all the missed chances he had with Keith. “Maybe he really didn't know what he was doing I mean Keith can be innocent…”

 _‘Yeah playing footsie with you, making that face while eating that pie and the_ **_being completely naked next to you!’_ ** His brain argued making Lance groan louder as he thunked his head against the mirror. “Dammit!”

“Lance? Are you okay? There's a lot of noise coming the bathroom,” Keith said worriedly.

Lance bristled hearing Keith's voice. Why did he had to fall asleep while necking with him the first night?!

“Ah-Um!! I’m okay! Just slipped a little!”

Silence on the other end. “Okaay… I’ll… just be in bed first!”

“Alright!” Lance yelled back through the door as he sank to the floor.

Lance released a slow exhale. “Just play it cool McClain… just play it cool….”

\---------------------------

(Few minutes later)

\---------------------------

 _‘Hot! Very Hot!’_ screamed Lance in his head as he lay tense, staring at the dark ceiling above him as Keith curled up against him fast asleep, his face snuggling into his neck.

The rising bulge below the sheets, tightening his pants along with the love of his life literally lying next to him was stretching Lance’s willpower to no end.

_‘I’m gonna die….’_

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dawn came shining on the couple through the window as Lance remained frozen, still staring at the ceiling with bloodshot eyes while Keith was still snuggling comfortably.  He couldn’t sleep a wink last night, between Keith moving around him, wrapping his arms around his chest to throwing his leg over his own at one one point Lance was feeling exhausted.

He had tried thinking of anything but the warm body next to him but that failed him expertly. Apparently his mind was getting sick of his body refusing and every time he would close his eyes he’d see brief flashes of what he wanted to do to Keith the whole day.

He used his free hand that wasn’t being hugged by Keith and rubbed his eyes, not even wanting to know how bad his eyes must look. Staying up all night like that is impossibly hard.

He stiffened when he felt a low groan from Keith, the warm breath tickling his neck as his boyfriend moved a bit before he apparently changed his mind and just wanted to snuggle Lance.

“G’morning Lance.” Keith yawned sleepily as he held Lance close to him.

“M-morning Keith,” Lance stuttered back making Keith frown as he sat up a bit to get a better look at the Cuban boy, his eyes widened when he saw how red his eyes were. “Don’t worry I’m fine just a few things kept me up..”

“Poor baby~” cooed Keith hugging Lance, only making him tense even more. “Can I do anything for you?”

“Why not spend the day with Matt?” suggested Lance pulling the covers higher and sniffing. “I don’t really feel so good…”

Keith looked a little disappointed and stroked Lance’s head. “We can do our outing tomorrow! Spending time with you is my number one priority!”

Lance ‘s whole body glowed red. ‘ _Oh gods, I think I just fell in love with him even more…..’_ he despaired in his head, sinking down under the covers as Keith continued to hug him comfortingly.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So how’s  Lance doing?” asked Matt seeing Keith make his way down.

“He says he’s not feeling good,” Keith sighed as he sat at the breakfast bar putting his head  on his hands, while Matt raised an eyebrow as he held a frying pan and was making some pancakes. Matt looked at the younger man was pouting and was looking a bit frustrated as he was swinging his feet as he sat down.

“Not feeling good? I mean he looked to be a bit in pain when you two came back but he didn’t look sick, and there hasn’t been anything around to pass on,” Matt said as he put the pancakes on some plates while he poured some more batter. “You sure he’s sick?”

“I don’t know, his eyes were bloodshot when I looked at him this morning like he hadn’t gotten any sleep last night, and he’s still stiffening up when I hug him or anything in bed.” Keith groaned, “I mean I know it’s been a year since we’ve seen each other…”

“Hey hey hey, no going down that trail of thoughts,” Matt said waving a spatula in Keith’s face making the other move back a bit so he didn’t get pancake batter on his face.“You and Lance went through too much together maybe he’s just tired from the police academy.”

“Matt he hasn’t responded to **_anything_ ** I’ve been doing to him!” Keith exclaimed showing his frustration. “Laila suggested sharing a pie and all that did was make him uncomfortable, I tried playing footsie and he pulled his legs up underneath him…”

“Hmm and he really didn’t say anything when you were wearing those really short pajama bottoms too.” Matt added looking thoughtful.

“I thought...I mean I had to prepare myself for a while but I’d thought Lance would wanna…” Keith  flushed at the thought.

Matt folded his arms. “Wow, that is ….kinda strange considering this is Lance we are talking about,”he noted, flipping more pancakes onto a plate. “I mean, he’s **Mr.Straightforward**!!! He’s President of the Straightforward Society!”

Keith slumped onto the breakfast table dejectedly. “Wow...thanks...My confidence is through the roof….”

Matt turned off the stove and placed the pancake pile in front of Keith.

“Come on Keith, don’t be like that,” chided Matt. “No one is more in love with you than Lance. He probably...just needs some time to readjust to you being back.”

“But-”

“Keith, look at the ring on your finger.”

Keith glanced down to his finger and smiled fondly at the red ring.

“Now your ear cuff.”

Keith’s fingers travelled up to the lotus ear cuff and unconsciously traced the design on the silver.

“What do you think these two pieces have in common Keith?”  asked Matt sitting down across from Keith.

“Unique pieces of Jewelry?”

“They are both one half of a set Keith! And they both represent how much you guys are meant for each other!” exclaimed Matt excitedly. “You gave Lance one of your mother’s ear cuffs because you love him right?”

Keith nodded. “More than anything...”

“Do you really think that Lance would make a show of serenading you in an airport to just give you a ring if he didn’t feel the same way?”

Matt watched as Keith’s whole body nearly went red in remembrance to the airport serenading and grinned wider as Keith ducked his head but was playing with the ring on his finger before looking back at Matt.

“Yeah...I mean it was a bit of a surprise that I came to visit Lance and I did want to surprise him,” Keith said as he buttered up his pancakes before dumping the maple syrup on them."He was a lot more alert than before so it was kinda interesting for him to actual toss me from behind him onto the bed.”

“Guess all that training is helping one way or another eh?” Matt said grinning slyly as Keith coughed and started to eat his food. “But yeah, Lance has been doing a lot of classes and training from the Academy so having the week off is good for him to rest and recharge, especially if his boyfriend is here to make things better~”

“Thanks Matt, for cheering me up.” Keith said sighing as Matt nodded.

“No problem Keith, but seriously though I don't’ know what else to tell ya I mean along with being Mr. Straightforward Lance does have a tendency to be very stubborn, what did you two do when he saw you? I don’t need ALL the details so feel free to skip some of that too.” Matt said quickly adding the last part.

“Uh well we were just making out but he just kinda...fell asleep on me?” Keith sighed."We didn’t really get that far anyway but since the first night I came here he hasn’t wanted to do anything like that.” Keith replied grabbing some more pancake.

“Have you tried asking him?” Matt asked. “I mean there is always that option even if it sounds a bit awkward…”

“Hmm… maybe…”

“Alrighty then! Now eat up! Katie's coming over to visit later!”

“Awesome.”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Ok Lance, you can do this! Just apologize wholeheartedly to Keith, then put this entire mess behind you!” Lance assured himself in the mirror. “You can do this, you can do this..”

“Do what?” asked Keith suddenly appearing in the mirror.

“Wha!!!” exclaimed Lance whipping around and pressing his back against the mirror to see Keith standing behind him carrying breakfast on a tray.

“I… brought you breakfast, how are you feeling?”

Lance coughed and straightened himself out. “Uh… better! Just a quick power nap and I’m back baby!”

Keith blinked a little. “Uh…. Okay? By the way, Pidge is visiting later. Maybe we can head over to the Lion House afterwards?”

Lance grinned and nodded as Keith gave his lover a strange look before heading into the shower to freshen up. Lance had to keep his mind occupied so he didn't think of his boyfriend a few feet away naked again.

“I can do this I just have to apologize and then everything will be hunky dory!” Lance said to Himself Again to  reassure. Once he apologized to Keith it would be smooth sailing for the rest of the week…

He nodded and went to get dressed since he had a shower earlier that helped him get rid of the bloodshot eyes. It didn't take long for him to finish getting dressed as he heard the bathroom door open. He turned to greet Keith when he felt his mouth suddenly go dry. Keith just had a single towel around his waist, the water dripping and curving along his muscles as the Asian was trying to find his clothes.

Lance’s eyes couldn't help but follow Keith who was legitimately unaware this time of Lance’s reaction.

_‘Just say it Lance! Just say it!!!’_

Lance opened his mouth to speak but no words were coming out.

At that moment, the sunlight coming in from the window hit Keith’s pale skin, practically illuminating him like a halo.

_'Aw crap….’_

**_*DING-DONG!!!*_ **

Lance nearly jumped out of his skin as he quickly scrambled for the door.

“I’LL GET IT!!!” announced Lance in a panicked voice, hurrying out the room.

Keith blinked a bit at Lance’s sudden departure when he suddenly heard a series of loud tumbles, swearing, before finally a loud thud and pained groaned.

 _“I am,_ **_OK!!”_ ** Lance was heard yelling from the bottom of the stairs before groaning again.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Oh Lance, don't ever change~” teased Pidge as Matt handed Lance an ice pack for the back of his head.

“Nice to see you too Pidgeon...Urgh well that could've gone better…” Lance grumbled hissing a bit at the lump he got from falling.

“What? Falling with style down the stairs? I kinda missed seeing you do that,” Pidge snickered as she sat on one of the chairs looking at Lance who only grumbled right back.

“Well I hope this doesn't happen for the rest of the week that this becomes a habit,” Matt chuckled as he brought out a plate for Pidge who licked her lips eagerly.

“Sooooo how's it going with Keith?” She asked before drowning her pancakes in syrup.

“Painful..” Lance whined making Pidge look at him oddly,” I'm not sure he knows what he's doing to me!”

‘ _Oh I bet he does know what he's doing to you…_ ’ Pidge thought snorting as she looked at her friend. “How exactly? I thought you'd be ecstatic Keith is here.”

“I am, it's just that…”

\---------------------------------------------

**_Lance: I’m just gonna skip the story a bit. *fast forwards the clip*_ **

**_Lance: Aaaand Play! *presses play button*_ **

\----------------------------------------------

“PFFFT-BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!” laughed Pidge hysterically much to Lance’s chagrin as he gave a deadpanned glance to Matt who just shrugged. “OOOOOOH THIS IS TOO-PFFFT!!!!BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA-WHOOOOHOOOHOOO!!!!”

Pidge clutched her aching sides as she collapsed on the floor, rolling with laughter while kicking her feet in the air.

It took Pidge a few breathes before she finally pulled herself back in her chair still having some giggles left in her system.

Lance folded his arms unnamed. “Are you done?” he asked bluntly.

Pidge bit her lip and held her breath while nodding before exhaling while wiping the tears from her eyes.

“Oh Lance, you're a riot~”

“Katie? Is that you?” called Keith walking down the stairs.

Pidge released a scream as she got up and vaulted over the couch before throwing herself into Keith's outstretched arms as he laughed spun her about. “Wow, you grew your hair out~!” exclaimed Keith playing with Katie's long locks.

Pidge giggled as she flipped Keith's ponytail. “You're one to talk, Pretty boy~”

“It's only a few inches and it's not that long compared to yours.” Keith said hugging Katie back happy,”it's great to see you again I've missed you,”

Pidge hugged him back laughing. “I've missed you as well.” Pidge said. “And I heard you've been busy helping Kaito.”

“Yeah the dork finally taking some time off to date his detective and I get to visit Lance.” Keith sad smiling though Pidge could see Keith tense at Lance and sighed.

“Keith whatever it is you two should just talk, I just got done hearing what you've been doing with Lance and I say keep it up,” Pidge said smirking as Keith stared at her.

“Seriously?”

“Lance can only hold out so long and besides it's you we’re talking here,” whispered Pidge, playfully nudging her ex-roommate. “He’ll crack at some point. You’ll get him then~”

_“Pidge!”_

“You know it~” she giggled before trotting over back to the table to finish her meal only to find her plate empty.

“Heeeeeey! Who ate my pancakes?!” Pidge demanded before glaring at Lance who averted his eyes while licking the remaining syrup from his lips.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Oh it's so good to see you again dear~” greeted Allura cheerfully as she led the group into the familiar common room “I thought you weren't coming until next month.”

Kichiro gurgled happily in Keith's arms as he pulled on his ponytail while Lance bounced holding Jun making the baby squeal happily.

“Well, let's just say I caught an early flight,” explained Keith wincing at Kichiro’s sharp tug. “Ow! Easy on the tugging Chiro.”

“Hahah sorry Keith he’s gotten into the habit of pulling things within his reach,” Shiro chuckled as he watched Keith try to loosen his son’s grip on him.

“It's why I've been forced to have my hair up all the time,” Allura said as Kichiro squealed as Keith started to bounce him,” still I'm happy you came by Keith! How has everything been?”

“Busy, Kai got a lot of shows planned so we’ve been traveling all over,” Keith replied chuckling,”it's hardly a dull moment with him.”

“Have you had time to check out different things to do?” Lance asked as he sat next to Keith having the twins next to each other as Matt and Katie were making faces at the kids.

“A few things here and there,” Keith replied,”it's fun just walking around the new cities we’re in and check out the places that way. How's it going being parents?”

“Tiring, Jun likes clinging to her daddy and playing escape artist with her crib as Chiro tends to make noises when he wants somethings,” Shiro said tiredly,”but it's worth it though having the twins with us.”

“That's sweet,” Keith chuckled as Chiro let go of his ponytail in favor of trying to climb onto Keith’s shoulders.

“How has your visit back been so far? Have you caught up with everyone?” Allura asked Keith.

“Just Lance, Matt and Katie.” Keith replied shrugging though he seemed to pout a bit as he looked at Lance.

Allura smiled,”well...since you haven't see Hunk yet if you don't have any dinner plans we can go see him? He has a dance night at his restaurant tonight.” She suggested.

“I haven't seen Hunk yet and it does sound like fun.” Keith said perking up.

“Excellent! Then let's meet back here tonight at 7pm!” exclaimed Allura squeezing Shiro’s arm.

“Oh man, Keith! Hunk’s restaurant is like the talk of the town of Hawaiian cuisine!” said Lance excitedly, his twinkling eyes sending Keith's heart a flutter.

“I can't wait~” replied the Asian as Kichiro happily hugged his face.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Keith and Lance hung out with Katie and Matt for the rest of the day until they had to head home and get changed to meet up again. Lance was already dressed wearing something casual but still somewhat formal looking. Keith was finishing up in the bathroom.

“You about ready Keith?” Lance called knocking.

“Yeah!” Keith replied as he opened the door and Lance couldn't help but stare a bit. He had on a form fitting red shirt sleeve shirt under a black vest, he wore some tight fitting black pants with matching boots. The ring and ear cuff stood out on the outfit as Keith smiled back.

“A-alrighty lets go!” Lance said as he grabbed Keith’s hand and pulled him downstairs were Katie and Matt were waiting.

“Alright so we’ll pick up Allura and Shiro and then head over to Hunk’s.” Katie said grinning,”you're going to love the food Keith.”

“It's hunk's food, there's no way I'd be disappointed.” Keith chuckled as they headed out.

\-------------------------------------------

Keith whistled at the impressive building that was Hunk’s restaurant,” Wow you weren't kidding, this is really impressive.”

“I know right? All of us were surprised but Hunk makes it work, come on!” Katie said tugging Keith forward as they got to the front doors.

“You said it was the talk of the town how come there aren't that many people around?” Keith asked he had been expecting a line to be outside the place.

“You'll see,” Allura said smiling as Shiro opened the doors and Katie practically hauled Keith inside. It was dark and he couldn't see a thing until the lights turned on and a loud chorus of voices shouted,” **Surprise!!”**

Keith blinked away the lights and couldn't help but laugh.

“Did you guys invite everyone here?” Keith asked looking at the others. He could see all the McClains, Hunk’s family, Rax and Shay who were all waving and grinning at him.

“You bet!!” exclaimed Hunk stepping forward and pulling Keith into a big bear hug. “Welcome back Keithy~!”

“Hrrk.. Thanks…. Hunk…” Keith bemusedly squeezed out before his friend placed him back down and patted his shoulders.

“Let's enjoy the party everyone!!!” announced Hunk as everybody cheered.

 _“HERMANOOOOO!!!!!”_ squealed a familiar voice as a small figure rammed into Keith's gut, knocking the wind out of him.

“Sofia?Is that you?I barely recognized you!” greeted Keith patting the girl’s head.

Sofia puffed out her chest proudly. “I am six years old now! I’m practically a woman!”

“Not yet you're not _Mija~_ ”teased Lance plucking his niece off Keith and tucked her under his arm, tickling her as the little girl squealed and laughed.

“ _Tio Lance, Nuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!”_ squealed the little girl, batting at her uncle.

Keith stood back and watched amused as Sofia tried to fight against Lance, not noticing Lance’s older siblings coming closer to him.

“Hey you glad to see you're back,” Alberto said wrapping an arm around Keith’s shoulder,” you wouldn't believe the whining Lance would do when you left. He never kept his phone too far away from him in case you called.”

“Yeah he wouldn't let that phone out of his sight, it was cute,” Nico laughed while Dani smirked.

“You were the same when we started to date Nico, remember?” Dani chuckles as Nico coughed while Alberto laughed.

“Oh yeah! Dani would ‘complain! When she'd get a text from you like every hour!” Alberto laughed while Nico turned red.

“Shut up Alberto!” Nico growled.

“Still we all missed you Keith it's nice to see you back,” Daniella said hugging the dark haired boy.

“Its nice to be back even if it's only for a week,” Keith said as he was lead to the table. He was introduced to Katie’s mom who thanked him fondly for taking care of Katie and caught up with Rax and Shay.

“You should've seen it Keith it was like half the school plus the alumni chasing after Bayleaf,” Rax said shaking his head,” I don't know what she eats to continue being like that.”

“I'm almost afraid to know as well, I'm just glad she was caught before she did something else to the school,” Keith replied laughing as Rax groaned,”how are you and Hunk doing Shay?”

“Wonderful! He's really helping Rax out with his skills as an engineer a lot of the company’s progress has increased exponentially!” Shay said smiling, proudly holding up an engagement ring. “and he even proposed to me last month! Rax finally gave in and let Hunk do so.”

“Wow! Congratulations Shay! I'm really happy for you two!” Keith said hugging the girl who hugged him back,” and it took only a few years for Hunk to win over Rax huh?”

“Hey I had to make sure.” Rax grumbles as both Shay and Keith laughed.

Lance looked over when he heard Keith laughing and couldn't help but have a fond, loving smile when he looked at his boyfriend.

“ _Tió_ Lance you're making the silly happy face that daddy makes when he's looking at mommy.” Sofia said poking Lance’s cheek.

“Well I can't help it, I just love Keith so much I can't  help but smile,” Lance replied kissing Sofia’s cheek.

“I'm glad you two finally got together,” Hunk said slapping his best friend in the back. “Because honestly you two deserve each other, how's it been having him back?”

“It's been great.”

Hunk raised an eyebrow at Lance. “Uh-oh, I know that look.”

“Sweetie, go play with Keith ok?”

Sofia saluted happily and ran back to Keith, throwing herself in his arms.

Hunk gestured for Lance to follow him, which he obliged. Hunk brought him to a quiet corner of the restaurant, away from the crowd and sat him down on chair before sitting across from him.

“Ok, what happened?”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Do you **_really_ ** think Keith is mad at you?” asked Hunk bluntly as Lance lay his head depressed on the table.

“Yes he is, and now he’s torturing me by turning my penis into a time bomb……”

Hunk wrinkled his face. “Ok, dude first off, **Ew** . Secondly, **T-M-I,** ” he stated."Lastly, have you **_tried_ ** talking to him?”

Lance nodded. “But everytime I get the chance, he looks so beautiful I forget what to say….”

Hunk just let a low whistle."Whipped…”

Lance just responded to giving Hunk the finger.

“Okay okay look I highly doubt Keith is mad at you, remember you've **_seen_ ** him mad at you and that was not a pretty sight for any of us since it was so awkward and weird.” Hunk said as he made Lance look at him,” you need to step up and talk to Keith seriously Lance, he's only here for a week so if I were you I'd be making the most of the time you two have.”

Lance let out a long groan,”I know I know but I'm just nervous!”

“Lance, unless you screw up really really badly like that one time between the two of you there's no way Keith will be mad at you.” Hunk assured,” trust me,”

Lance ran a hand through his short hair and sighed, giving his friend a nervous smile,” Yeah...I do trust you buddy okay…”

\----------------------------------------

“Do you...do you think Lance is bored with me?” Keith asked quietly making Matt choke on his drink and Katie doing a spit take at Shiro’s face.

“ **_What!? Okay what the hell did Lance do Keith just say the word and I'll-”_ **  Katie raged before Shiro and Matt grabbed the girl before she could go on a rampage.

“Down Katie! No causing traumatic harm without reason!” Matt said holding his sister tightly. "And Keith what did I just talk with you this morning?”

“ I know…but…I can't help but feel he’s avoiding me…"

Shiro wrapped his metal arm around Katie who huffed as she stayed put.

“There has to be a misunderstanding somewhere Keith, have you guys talked about it?” suggested Shiro.

Keith sighed heavily. “I could barely get him alone with me to cuddle, let alone talk…”

“I’ll get him to talk…..” hissed Katie holding up her taser.

“Noo, Noooo, Katie put the taser down,”said Shiro in his ‘dad’ voice.

“Just one zap and he’ll understand easily!” Katie growled trying to get out of Shiro’s grip,” and don’t use your ‘dad’ voice on me it's making me actually feel bad!”

“Good then it's working, seriously Katie zapping Lance isn't going to solve anything between these two,” Shiro said looking at Keith who was still looking unsure,” Keith, we all know for a fact that Lance would hardly get bored of you after everything you two have done.”

“Exactly, stop thinking so negatively about it. You just need to go up to Lance and talk to him about this whole situation, and no Katie that doesn't mean hovering over him with one of your robots to make sure they talk.” Matt said poking his sister’s face

“It's only been a year and already Keith is having problems…” Katie hissed.

Shiro sighed facepalming,” it's more about communication really that's what I think the problem is.”

“Did you and Allura tell each other whenever you were feeling unsure Shiro?” Keith asked curiously looking at the older man.

“If I didn't Allura would have gotten it out of me some other way…”replied Shiro bluntly glancing over to his wife across the room, catching her as she smiled and waved.

Keith quirked an eyebrow as Shiro returned the gesture.

“My point is, there's only a few days left to enjoy whatever time you have here with Lance. Just talk to him, clear this mess and you can enjoy the rest of the week anyway you want,” Shiro said.

 **_“_ ** Or **_Every way_ ** you want~” added Katie waggling her eyebrows.

“ _Katie!”_ exclaimed Matt in appallment covering Keith's ears.

Shiro looked at Katie who was snickering at Matt who’s face was red and Keith though he had a confused look on his face seemed to be turning red as well. Shiro muttered he was surrounded by children.

“Katie do you even know what you're talking about and Matt I thought you were suppose to be the older one, why are you embarrassed and covering **_Keith’s_ ** ears when you should be covering Katie’s mouth?” Shiro asked dryly while Katie continued to cackle.

“I get the feeling Katie knows a lot more then she lets on about certain aspects…” Matt commented looking at his sister who innocently took out her iPad as Matt let go of Keith

“It's just some reading material I picked up in Japan when I visited Keith and his family,” Katie said innocently as she flipped through her iPad,” I met these nice girls who ran a unique bookshop.”

“Exactly how unique and where?” Matt asked suspiciously while Keith was feeling a sort of dread in his stomach.

“Katie...this bookshop wouldn't be where Aoko got those books for Kaito that one Christmas is it?” Keith asked and saw Katie’s grin get wider,”Kattiieeeee what have you been reading!?’

“See I wasn't dealt into reading the books about Kaitou KID and the detective of the east soo one of the girls recommend me a very good series that I managed to scan and upload into my iPad so I could read it!” She grinned and flipped the tablet around showing the boys around her.

Shiro gaped.

Matt stared.

Keith’s face was taking a whole new shade of red.

“ **_Galatic Leo: LoveXPride!”_ ** Katie grinned,” it's a **very** good series with lots of details!”

Matt looked absolutely horrified at the revelation that his baby sister had become a fujoshi. “Ohmigosh!!! Are **_those_ ** what all those care packages from Aoko was?!”

“I could send you the scans to reeeead~” offered Katie waving her Ipad in front of Keith while pushing her brother's face away.

Keith cleared his throat and put up his hands. “Eeeh… maybe another time…”

“Suit yourself," replied Katie with a shrug.

“I’m telling mom!” threatened Matt.

“And I’ll tell Aoko about the new addition to _Matt-Tropolis~”_

Matt gasped in horror."How did you know?!” he hissed.

Katie just gave a smug smile while Keith shook his head and stood up.

“I’m gonna go… grab dessert…” he said shuffling his way to the table.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thankfully Hunk had a whole buffet set up on a table for anyone to come to get food so he couldn’t be stuck in the kitchen while everyone else hung out and caught up with each other during the party. Grabbing a plate he looked over at all the desserts and had to admit Hunk really had outdone himself, there was a chocolate fountain with stuff you could dip into the chocolate, mini pies, cakes, pastries, and chocolates were lined up on display.

There weren’t really any labels on what each dessert was but he could pretty much guess what some of them were by what they looked like. He shrugged and grabbed a few of the chocolates and mini pies that looked good, he glanced over at Lance and was considering grabbing a few of the desserts Lance like and maybe sharing the plate with him that would give him or at least them a good chance to talk?

“Well debating this in my head isn’t going to get anything done…” Keith muttered as he gripped his plate of desserts and couldn’t help but pop one of the rounded bon bon looking chocolates into his mouth as he went looking for Lance so they could talk before he had to go back home.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lance walked about greeting people while looking for Keith.

Most of the family were on the dance floor. Matt and Katie both held Jun and Chiro respectively and spun about with them while not far from them, Coran and Papa Garret had shared some Hawaiian alcoholic beverage and were starting a conga line.

He could see Nico and Dani dancing together with former staring dreamily at his wife.

“OOOF!” went Lance suddenly tripping over something.

Lance stumbled a bit before regaining his balance.He looked over to see what he had hit to find a pair of legs sticking out from underneath the tablecloth accompanied by some muffled sniffling underneath.

Raising his eyebrows, Lance glanced around the room before lifting the tablecloth to find none other than his lover, leaning against the table leg with a flushed face, a plate with remnants of sweets was next to him.

“Keith?”

The Asian boy’s eyes popped open and twinkled upon seeing Lance.

“Laaaaaaaance~ I washhhhoooking for ya baaakaaaaa…” drolled Keith deliriously as he pouted and lifted a finger, pointing at him.

“Boop~” giggled Keith pushing Lance’s nose.

Lance rubbed his nose, slightly weirded out. “Keith? Are you drunk?”

“ _Iiie….ore wa yotte inaaaiiii~….. Jeonhyo chwihaji ahn-assda~”_

 _‘Crap...he's drunk...but from what?’_ Lance thought as he looked over the plate of sweets next to his lover. All the desserts looks normal except for the chocolates, grabbing one he popped into it and winced.

‘ _Oooooohhh...Mr.Garrett’s Bon-bon bombs…didn't think Keith was a lightweight…’_ Lance thought as he pushed the plate away and gather his drunk lover in his arms,”how many did you have Keith?”

The Asian giggles as Lance tried to pick him up and nearly fell backwards when Keith suddenly moved forward and wrapped his arms around his neck pressing his body close.

“Hmmm like three...or nine? They were gooooddddrrrrrrIi wash looking for youssss….” Keith slurred as Lance tried to regain his balance. Lance swallowed hard as Keith had practically buried his nose against his neck sending shivers up his spine,”we needed to taaaaalllkkkkkk….”

“I-oh yeah? A-about what?” Lance asked as he tried to steady himself but Keith wouldn't stop squirming in his arms as Keith frowned pouting up at Lance.

“Laaaannsshhh…” whined Keith pushing Lance’s nose multiple times _."Baka….baka-baka…...bakabakabakabakabaka….Boop.”_

“Uuuuh…." went Lance unsure of how to respond.

Suddenly Keith's eyes began growing big and watery. “ _Urrrrgh… Lance…. Wae nal chyeoda boji anhni?”_ whined Keith weakly hitting Lance with his fists. _“Shenpaaaaaaiiiii…….ore ni kidzukuuuuu….. Ano Baka!!! Baka-baka-bakaaaaa…!!!”_

Keith continued whining like a kid while hitting Lance with his fists albeit pathetically.

‘ _Ah…. So he's a crying whiny drunk….’_ noted Lance bluntly as Keith sank to the floor and hooked on to Lance’s leg.

Lance sat on the floor next to Keith not wanting his boyfriend to wander off in the state that he was in, he managed to grab Keith’s hands off of his legs and hold them.

“Keith, maybe you should rest you've had too many chocolates,” Lance tried as Keith just sniffed looking at him,”come on I'm sure there's a place where you can lie down…”

Keith shook his head as the drunk Asian looked at Lance determinedly, as much as he could drunk anyways. Lance nearly yelled when Keith suddenly moved from his side and onto his lap, the movement causing Lance to hit his back against the wall as Keith towered over him.  

“ _Wae na hante kiseuhaji anhni?”_ Keith asked quietly as Lance looked up into water indigo eyes.

Lance was suddenly very aware at Keith pressing against him, straddling him and leaving his face closer, he could feel every movement his drunk boyfriend in his lap was doing to him. He had to suppress a noise when Keith wrapped his arms around his shoulders and kissed his neck. “ _Naneun neoleul wonhae….”_

Lance trembled a bit as he let Keith continue trailing kisses up his neck, tracing his jawline up to his nose.

It was a good thing the tablecloth was hiding them or this would be incredibly hard to explain to the kids.

“Keith… Keith….no… not here please…”Lance begged weakly trying to gently push Keith off him but he ignored Lance’s efforts, instead grabbing the Cuban’s shoulders, slowly unbuttoning the first few buttons of Lance’s shirt and peeling back the fabric, exposing his collarbone as Keith began trailing back down to it.

Lance instantly snapped back to his senses when he felt a sharp bite followed by gentle caressing licks.

“Keith! Stop!” commanded Lance sharply, unintentionally shoving Keith away that his back hit the table causing it to jerk.

Lance frowned as he pulled his shirt back into place before grabbing Keith by the wrist and pulling him out from under the table. Keith blew his cheeks out in a huff as Lance hoisted the Asian over his shoulder.

“Come on, we’re going home,” Lance said as Keith folded his arms and continued pouting.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Keith sat in bed wrapped up in the blanket while curled, sulking heavily, refusing to look at Lance.

“Keith…. Come on…. Don’t be like that…”

Keith continued pouting as he turned away from Lance.

_ “Stupid Lance… Stupid, dumb Lance… Stupid, dumb, stinky Lance…” _ Lance could hear Keith drunkenly mumble to himself.

‘ _ I can't tell if he's just drunken mad at me or really mad at me…’ _ Lance sighed running a hand down his face as he looked at his upset boyfriend. He tried reaching out to Keith but his boyfriend just pulled the covers over him some more until he disappeared under them.

Lance tried sitting on the bed reaching over to try and pull the blankets off of Keith but the Asian just held them tighter.

_ “ _ Keith…Keith… It...you were drunk and -”

“ _ Lance...no Baka….” _

Lance bit his lip seeing Keith upset at him whether he was drunk or not was still upsetting. With a heavy sigh he stood up, leaning over to give Keith a kiss through the blankets as he headed out of the room.

“I'll see you in the morning Keith…” Lance said quietly as the door quietly shut behind him.

Watery indigo eyes turned and peeked out of the blankets as Keith sniffed rubbing his eyes.

“Lance…..”

\------------------------------------------------------------

The Cuban stopped by the hallway bathroom on his way down and peeled back his shirt, where he felt Keith bite him he saw the start of a hickey on him.

Lance slowly traced the mark before sighing heavily. “The first time he finally gives me a love bite and I shove him away… Stupid… stupid!!!” Lance chided himself, knocking his own head a bit against the mirror.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Keith awoke the next day, his head throbbing hard.

**_‘Ugh… Keeeeith… . Whyyyyyy?’_ ** whined the familiar voice in his head.

_ ‘Shuddup….. What happened?....’ _

**_‘Ya got drunk off bonbons, ya doof!’_ **

Keith flinched at that last that as he gripped his head. His eyes felt crusty as he tried to recall what happened last night.

Party… chocolates... Lance…. Oh god….  **_Lance…._ **

The specific memory of biting Lance suddenly sparked in his head making blood rush to Keith’s head as he suddenly dived back under the covers and screamed into the pillow in embarrassment.

_ “Oh my god….. Whyyyyy?!” _

_ \----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _

Lance awoke from a fitful sleep to the smell of coffee being made in the kitchen as he slowly rose from the couch like a zombie.

“Morning Sleeping beauty!” Matt chimed grinning as he passed a cup to Lance.

“Urgh how are you so cheery so freaking early??” Lance grumbled while Matt raised an eyebrow.

“It's hardly early when it's ten in the morning Lance, “ Matt replied as Lance still made a face at him,”Anyway how was your night? It didn't take us very long to see you and Keith disappear.”

Lance froze as Matt continued on not noticing how tense Lance was.

“So that probably means Keith took our advice and talked to you right?” Matt asked looking at the darker skinned male across from him,” so it was a bit of a surprise to see you on the couch when I came back but-”

“Matt nothing happened,” Lance said making Matt stare at him,”Keith….keith’s apparently a lightweight when It comes to liquor and he got drunk off of Mr. Garett’s bonbon bombs.

“You're shitting me, so absolutely nothing happened!? Did you two even talk?” Matt asked getting worried. The week was half over and the two still hadn't talked about the first night and their insecurities.

“Keith talked but I couldn't even understand half of what he was saying since it was a mix of Japanese and Korean.” Lance replied sipping his drink slowly.

Matt groaned. “Dammit you two seriously need to sit down and just talk! Why is this so hard!?”

Lance just buried his face in his hands. “I feel bad as it is Matt…”

“Bah! Excuses!” huffed Matt irritably before grabbing Lance by his shirt. “You listen to me McClain!!! You guys did not go through  **_two years_ ** of soap opera crap just so you two can fall back into your dodgy routine!!! Now stop fucking around and start  **_fucking your lover!!!”_ **

Lance looked taken aback and blinked at Matt's sudden outburst and use of language.

Lance was about to answer when the two heard the front door slam, not noticing Keith had snuck past them and left.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Keith got on the bus, heaving a sigh as it headed into the city. He needed to get away from Lance for a while. There was no way he could face him right now…. Not after his shameful behaviour last night.

‘ **You do realize it's not exactly bad if that's something you wanted to do,’** Shadow pointed out as Keith sunk lower into his seat.

‘ _ Please don't remind me, I was drunk!’ _

**‘Which you should know releases inhibitors, even if you were drunk you've been sending hints to Lance all week! You'd think he'd get it by now!’**

_ ‘You’d think...but…’ _

**‘Why are you having doubts? Everyone says-’**

‘ _ That's the thing  _ **_everyone_ ** _ I know says the same thing..I need an outside opinion.’ _

**‘Exactly who do you know that won't be like the- No. Are you serious!?’**

_ ‘Yes, she's better and can help’ _

**‘This is a horrible idea…’**

_ ‘Too late now,’  _ Keith said as the bus stopped and he got off and was standing in front of a familiar psychiatric facility.

**‘Quiznak…’**

\--------------------------------------------------

“Keith! It's been so long!” Winnie said joyfully getting up from behind the desk and hugging the young man,”look at you! You've changed so much!”

“I see they're letting you do more,” Keith said kindly as Winnie nodded.

“They took notice how I love reading and after a few tests they allowed me to run the library for a few hours a day, being surrounded by the books is nice.” Winnie said,”so what brings you here?”

“Ah...I need some advice?” Keith asked as Winnie looked concerned but nodded as she pulled Keith over to a private corner of the library.

“Okay to tell me what's happening Keith,” Winnie asked.

Keith took a deep breath and explained to the older woman.

\----------------------------------------------------

“Hmmm honestly Keith it sounds like you just need to be upfront and frank with Lance,” Winnie said after listening. “You two haven't talked but you're almost dodging each other in a way. Either you or Lance need to make the first move.”

**_‘I can't believe you're so desperate that you are asking advice from the same crazy lady who pulled a Fatal Attraction and killed your parents….. And Almost Lance… and you!’_ **

_ ‘Shush you!’ _

Winnie looked down at the book  in her hands sadly. “More of my memories came back over the course of the year… I remembered what… what I did….. To Thace and Chie…” confessed the woman regrettably.

Keith's shoulders tensed.

“I took your parents away from you Keith…All because I let my own feelings blind me… I was so wrapped up in my own head I destroyed what I had….” explained Winnie clenching her hands into fists before looking at Keith. “What you have with Lance is something truly special. Don’t let that get destroyed because of what was in your head.”

**_‘Hmph!’_ **

Keith ignored Shadow and pondered over Winnie’s words. She made a very valid point. Slowly, Keith reached out and held Winnie’s hands.

“Thank you… Winnie… I know what I should do…”

Winnie returned a grateful smile and cupped Keith's cheek. “No Keith, thank you… after everything I’ve done to you, you're still here... Visiting me…”

“You...you're back to who you should've been the whole time Winnie,” Keith said smiling at Winnie. “Mom...Chie she would've still visited you...thank you Winnie. Despite everything, I’m glad I met you.”

Winnie sniffed and hugged Keith tightly but she couldn’t help but laugh before she pulled back from Keith wiping her eyes.

“You should probably head back now if you want to make the most of your time with Lance while you’re still here,” Winnie said as they both stood up. “Take care okay Keith? I’d love to get some letters from you and maybe learn some Japanese too if you can send me anything.”

“I’ll be sure to send you a few new books Winnie, take care okay?” Keith said as Winnie walked him out of the library.

“You too, I wish you luck with Lance but honestly Keith I think you’ll be fine.” Winnie said making the younger boy nod before walking out coming up with plans in his head, crossing his fingers that this will work.

**‘Maybe she’s not totally bad…’**

_ ‘See!’ _

**‘I still don’t like her…’**

_ ‘Urghh...just stay quiet already.’ _

_ \----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _

Keith got home, remembering the spare key that Lance and Matt had told him in case one of them forgot. Peeking inside the living room he didn’t see Lance or Matt as he walked inside shutting the door behind him.

_ ‘Maybe that’s a good thing so I can collect my thoughts.’ _ Keith thought to himself as he headed back up to Lance’s room.

Almost nervously he pushed the door opened half expecting to see his dark skinned boyfriend, but all he saw was some clothes tossed around. Figuring Lance must’ve gone out Keith decided to change into some clean clothes, he started to undress until he was down into his boxers. Just as he was going to grab a clean shirt he saw one of Lance’s shirts on the bed, curiosity getting the better of him instead of grabbing one of his own he grabbed the shirt and slipped it on, doing up the buttons.

The bottom of the shirt brushed against the edges of his boxers and since Lance had more broad shoulders than Keith the shirt was partially slipping off one of his shoulders as the sleeves made it just to his knuckles.

“Wow… I never knew Lance was so… big…”

**_‘That’s what she said.’_ **

_ ‘I’m tuning you out now,’ _ Keith growled mentally as he sat on the bed and pulled the shirt closer to his body.

It smells exactly like Lance, was what Keith thought snuggling into the shirt even more when suddenly the bedroom door opened making Keith jump.

Lance was just bringing up his folded laundry from the basement to his room, pondering the whole time on talking to Keith.

“Today it has to be today…” Lance kept telling himself as he opened the door to his room and froze.

Keith and Lance locked eyes with the former’s face burning brightly.

**_*Thud!*_ ** went the laundry basket falling to the floor.

“Um…” went Lance as he started to back away when Keith sprang up and yanked him inside, slamming the door close as he barricaded the door with his body.

“No! I’m not letting you run away this time!” declared Keith pressing hard to keep it shut as Lance struggled to get door open.

Lance’s mind was in panic mode. He didn't realize that Keith was back already and he especially didn't expect to find Keith practically naked wearing  **his** shirt.

Keith looked so hot with his clean, fair legs and his exposed shoulder where the shirt hung off from. That he was practically swimming in the shirt just made him look so… what was that word Matt used the other day?  **_Moe!!!_ **

_ ‘Holy Crap! Holy crap!!’  _ screamed Lance mentally trying to scramble out but Keith was blocking his escape.

Suddenly, Lance turned tail and was making his way to dive out the window when Keith quickly ran forward and wrapped his arms around Lance from behind.

“Let me go Keith!  **_Please!!! I can’t-!”_ **

“Lance Why?! Have you grown so tired of me that you can't even stand to be in the same room?!” demanded Keith, burying his face into Lance’s back.

Lance stopped his struggling as he looked over his shoulder. “Wait, What?”

“I know you're bored of me! And why wouldn't you?! I was away for a year! I’m too busy to even text you!” cried Keith releasing his arms and covered his face."I thought surprising you would spark our relationship back but..."

Lance melted as he turned to face Keith. “What? Keith…No… No… I would  **_never_ ** think that way off you!” exclaimed Lance as he pulled Keith into his arms but Keith tried to push away, keeping his face low to hide his tears.

“What else am I supposed to think?! I’ve been doing everything I can to seduce you but you keep avoiding me!!! Do you know how embarrassed I was appearing before you naked and wearing those tiny shorts ?!” he wailed frustratedly weakly pummeling Lance with his fists.

Lance blinked at this revelation. “Yo-you were trying to seduce me?”

_ “Baka! Baka!”  _ wailed Keith some more in embarrassment as he continued hitting Lance until his lover grabbed his wrists and hugged him tightly, burying his face in the Asian’s hair.

“I could never ever be tired of you Keith… in fact… I can't get enough of you…” whispered Lance, nuzzling his boyfriend endearingly making Keith go redder while Lance too began blushing. “All this time… I didn't touch you because I thought you were mad at me….”

Keith sniffed heavily. “Why would I be mad at you for?”

“Well…you went through all that trouble to come home early and surprise me and what do I do? I fell asleep while we were making out….”

“.......What?...”

“I wanted to hold you so badly Keith…. But I thought I didn't deserve to… . These past few days were torture…”

Suddenly, Lance could feel Keith's shoulders start to shake violently as laughing could be heard emanating from him.

“Pfft…..all this time You thought I was  **angry** at you?” snorted Keith as he broke down into a mixture of tears and laughter. “You dummy… you were avoiding me because of  **_that?”_ **

Lance looked ashamed and confused when Keith suddenly grabbed his face and tip toed a bit to give his lover a soft kiss on his lips before giving him smile while wiping his tears. “Idiot… you were tired that night, why else would you fall asleep?”

Lance’s face went incredibly red as he looked into his lover's sincere eyes. “But-” he was about to say when Keith shushed him with a placed finger to Lance’s lips and a smile.

“Shut up Lance~” went Keith as he kissed Lance again.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Keith and Lance moaned through their deep kiss as they made out on the bed with Keith straddling the other as they grinded their hips together.

Keith's hands gripped Lance’s shoulders as he felt Lance’s hands trace his spine through the fabric of the shirt all the way down to his rump. The Asian squealed a little as he felt Lance’s large hands massaging his butt cheeks, forcing Keith rub his crotch harder against his lover, moaning even more in pleasure as their bulges became more evident and were growing warmer by the second.

Lance’s left hand snaked it's way down the back of Keith's boxers while his right hand slowly worked to unbutton the shirt bit by bit exposing Keith's pale chest.

Lance broke this as he began giving Keith tiny licks down his neck, nipping the skin a little. His tongue trailed down the grooves before finally locating one of Keith's nipples and began sucking on it, making the Asian gasp.

Lance could practically feel Keith's heart pulsating through his lips as he caressed the pink nub with his tongue while his right hand continued to feel every inch of Keith before travelling down to his waistband as he tried working his pants off.

Keith shivered when he could feel Lance’s hands playing with the waistband of his boxers as he was breathing heavily. leaning closer to Lance as his arms tighten around his boyfriend’s shoulder as he could feel Lance pushing down the waistband sliding down his hips.

The Asian couldn’t help but groan as he managed to lift himself up a bit letting Lance slid the boxers off of him until the only thing he had on him was just Lance’s shirt. Keith’s face was flushed as was his whole body as Lance continued to nip at his chest while his hands felt the new access to Keith’s body. Keith moved his head downward, spotting the hickey he had started when he was drunk and decided to finish the work as he nuzzled Lance’s neck before he started nibbling.

Not that Keith’s hands were being idle, he slipped his hands under Lance’s shirt and tugged at Lance’s shirt as Lance’s hands were sliding down his back and resting on his thighs that were against Lance’s hips.

“Lance…” Keith breathed against Lance’s neck giving a particular hard bite making his lover groan as Keith pulled at his shirt and grinded against Lance’ still jean clothed bottoms, “too much clothes…not fair…”

Lance felt Keith pull back as he pressed his hands against down against the silky smooth thighs of his boyfriend as he removed his shirt so that he was shirtless. Keith couldn’t help but stare as his own hands traced over the developed muscles that Lance had acquired not only from his extra training from Shiro but from the training he got from the police academy. Keith licked his lips as he went back to nibbling on Lance’s neck but started to leave a trail of bites and kisses along Lance’s chest, his hands traced the taut muscles of Lance’s stomach.

Making their way to the Cuban’s waistline, Keith worked away unbuttoning the jeans and sliding down the zipper before his hands slid into Lance’s boxers. His fingers traced against the long hard member that was starting to get wet with precum.

“Keith….” breathed Lance hotly against his ear _."Hang on to me..." _

Before Keith even had time to comprehend, he heard the small pop of a lid coming off as Lance reached over. He suddenly felt Lance’s slicked up middle finger push into him, making him involuntarily jerk forward as his arms flew around Lance’s neck and clung to him while closing his eyes tightly.

Lance used his right hand to continually massage Keith's buttcheek as his left fingers began to work Keith's hole, stretching it wider to accommodate more of Lance’s fingers. Keith gasped as he felt Lance slip in two fingers, then three, massaging around his insides until-

“Hnng!!” moaned Keith once more in surprise the instant Lance was able to find his sweet spot.

He could feel Lance’s dick get harder, pressing up against his stomach eagerly. His own responded in kind, brushing up against Lance’s.

Breathing hard, Keith used his right hand to grab both their members, rubbing them together. Keith couldn't help but smile a little in victory when he heard Lance gasp in his ear as Keith worked his own hand, moving in rhythm to their synchronized breathing.

“Keith, I’m gonna-!” gasped Lance as his breath hitched, his body shuddering. Keith lifted up his to see the sticky webbing coating his fingers fascination.

The two took a small break as Lance removed his fingers and sat up while still hanging on to his lover. “Keith… you're way too much for me…” he sighed looking up at Keith who kissed his nose and smirked.

“You better not be thinking of quitting now~” Keith teased licking his lips seductively making Lance swallow before Keith saw him grab a small tube of lube squeezing some onto his hands before rubbing it on his arousal. Once that was done he places his hands on Keith's hips, gripping them securely as he positioned himself.

“Wouldn't even dream of it~” purred Lance suddenly bringing Keith's hips down.

Keith let out a yelp of surprise as Lance’s tip entered him. He began to breathe slowly,gripping Lance’s  shoulders tightly as he lowered his hips until Lance’s full length was inside him. Keith convulsed a bit, taking in full breaths in order to relax his muscles.

_ “Lance… Lance…” _

“Are you OK?” asked Lance in concern only to have Keith hug him tighter.

_ “Lance… it hurts… but it feels good… Lance.. I.. I can't..!” _

Swallowing once again, Lance quickly flipped over, switching their positions so that Keith was now lying down on the bed.

“ _ Just hang on Keith… leave it to me,” _ Lance whispered huskily into his lover’s ear as he began to move.

Keith continued to cling to Lance as he thrusted into him, making small moans of pleasure each time his prostate was hit. That combined with hearing Lance’s grunts of effort and heavy breathing only served to rev Keith up even more.

“Hnng~ Lance~” mewled Keith as he began licking Lance’s earlobe, suckling on the soft parts making the Cuban moan even more in pleasure.

_ “Ugh… fuck….”  _ growled Lance as he clamped down on Keith's collarbone, prompting a yelp as Keith felt a warmth go through his entire body.

The pleasure he was feeling was exhilarating and resonating from every part where Lance was touching him. Keith trembled with ecstasy as he felt Lance licking the bruised skin prompting Keith to return the favor by sucking the mark he already gave Lance.

Keith could feel every muscle on Lance’s  strong back rippling with movement and he felt so safe being held against his strong broad chest. By now all their clothes were strewn on the floor.

Sweat was forming on their skin, making their bodies slippery against each other.

Lance licked his lips being able to taste the salt off Keith's skin.

His right hand traveled to Keith's member and began to rub it vigorously earning the most delicious reactions from him.

Both their minds were hazy, their eyes only focused on each other as their movements increased in speed and force.

_ “Lance! I'm-I can't hold it!"  _ gasped Keith as Lance sat up, pulling his body up with him.

Keith straddled Lance as he bounced in his lap his own movements becoming more forceful.

Lance caught Keith's gaze as the two locked lips, their tongues entering each other's mouths, slippery and entwining each other practically sucking the breath from their partner in wild, heated pleasure.

They could feel it. It was time.

_ “Keith! Keith!” _

_ “Lance!! I'm-” _

With the most ecstatic cry, Keith felt something hot spurt deep inside him while he too released wildly onto Lance’s stomach.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was late evening as Keith lay face down in bed, completely drained and covered in marks while Lance lay beside him just as exhausted but had the most blissful look of satisfaction he ever had in his life.

_ “ _ I never thought this day would actually come…” sighed Lance happily in a daze while Keith groaned."You doing ok over there? ….”

“I can't feel my legs….” whined Keith as he turned over and cuddled up to Lance’s chest while kissing his neck. “I enjoyed that more than I thought…”

Lance chuckled, kissing Keith's hair. “I’m glad you did~ and the best part is, you didn't pass out~!” he exclaimed jokingly only to yelp when Keith pouted and pinched his nipple.

“I can't believe we almost drifted because of a dumb misunderstanding…” Keith sighed, tracing one of the marks he made on Lance’s chest.

“I know right?”

Keith lifted his head, giving Lance a look as he poked Lance’s nose. “Just so you know, you started it.”

“Yeah, yeah…I’m sorry. Let's just put this whole matter behind us ok?”

Keith gave a small scoff as he lifted his head and kissed Lance’s cheek. “Fine.”

Lance smiled as he sat up and felt his sticky skin. “I’m gonna go take a bath, care to join me~?”

Keith blushed so fast that his hair fluffed out with steam rising from the top of his head. Shyly, Keith gave a small nod and tried to move off the bed.

**_“ACK!"_ ** went Keith as he slipped out off the mattress and crashed to the floor having forgotten his lower half was completely devoid of energy.

Lance couldn't help but laugh.

“Fuck you..." grumbled Keith struggling to sit up.

“Pfft! Maybe another time, babe~” teased Lance as he scooped Keith into his arms and carried him bridal style into the bathroom.

_ “Lance!”  _ exclaimed Keith in embarrassment, blushing once more as Lance closed the door behind them, laughing.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Since it was pretty late and neither of them had eaten much when they had separated and come back to Lance’s room. Lance had grabbed some clean boxers and sweats putting them on as he helped Keith into some himself before he carried a pouting Keith down the stairs since his boyfriend still was shaky on his legs. Setting him on the one of the chairs at the kitchen bar Keith winced having to shift a bit in his seat to get comfy before he looked at Lance who started to grab some food from the fridge to make something for the both of them.

“So...not that I’m complaining but where’s Matt?” Keith asked half expecting Katie’s brother to pop out and bug them if they finally had gone through with what both Keith and Lance had wanted to do.

“Er...said he was going to be spending the day with Shiro and Allura and come back tomorrow,” Lance replied, though it was more along the lines of Matt threatening Lance get his act together or he’d let Katie zap him before shoving the two of them in his room and locking it.

“So we have the place to ourselves?” Keith said thoughtfully thinking about something and weighing his options.

“Pretty much I mean Matt was getting pretty frustrated with us so he figures he’d leave us alone to our own devices for a while,” Lance replied as he started making food for the two of them his back turned to Keith. So he didn’t see his boyfriend get a sly smile and managed to get off of the chair sneaking behind Lance wrapping his arms around the Cuban’s waist as he made Lance jolt a bit when he kissed Lance’s collarbone.

“K-Keith?” Lance sputtered looking at the dark haired asian behind him who was grinning, even if he was blushing cutely.

“I’m glad Matt is gone for the day at least…” Keith said finally.

“Okay...and why?”

“Because then we can use what’s left of the day and before he comes back to make up for the first three days here~” Keith replied deviously, nipping at Lance’s neck while pressing up against Lance’s butt.

All of Lance’s hair stood up on end as soon as he realized what Keith was getting at.

Without another word, Lance just dropped all the food on the counter and scooped a surprised Keith up in his arms, running with him towards the stairs.

“Eh? W-wait?! I didn’t mean right now!”

“Too late~!” came Lance’s reply as he held onto his flailing boyfriend making a wild dash up to the bedroom.

_ “Lance!!!! Waaait!!!”  _ yelled Keith in protest as Lance slammed the door, his muffled cries of protest quickly transforming into a pleasurable moan as Lance had his way with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that's the end of of this series! Thank you so much for staying with us for the entire thing!! We're glad for all the support and comments we got!

**Author's Note:**

> Katie had changed so much since Catherine last saw her before she ran away three years ago.
> 
> She used to be so quiet and meek and she had the most beautiful hair and enjoyed wearing the dresses Catherine bought for her. Now, the child she knew was a young woman with a new fire in her eyes and carried herself assertively. However, she also seemed to have become aloof.
> 
> Was this really her same little girl?


End file.
